Wordpress 2.6

The muscle behind this blog is Wordpress. It is the most popular of a class of programs known as web-based content management systems or CMS. A CMS, in its most basic form, is software that conveniently allows people to update the content on their websites without requiring a programmer.

I use Wordpress partly because of its popularity but mainly because it’s loaded with the right stuff and it’s free. It is a thoughtful product, extremely easy to use with many features. Importantly, it is open source. What matters most about open source is that there is a huge community developing solutions for Wordpress, from interface designs to functions, and that makes my job building this blog much easier.

Although I’m a relatively new user of Wordpress, I’ve outgrown the ’software jitters’ and now embrace my inner programmer. Well, not actually a programmer. I only know of a bit of CSS, xHTML and PhP, requisites in the blog world. It’s more accurate to call me a ‘designer ’slash’ usability expert ’slash’ implementation specialist’. Regardless, because of its ease of use, Wordpress encourages me to explore.

For instance, a new version of Wordpress was made available earlier today. Brimming with confidence and, without reading a single release note, I downloaded and installed the upgrade in a matter of minutes. Was I successful? Well, I survived to write this post. Honestly, I used a solution from the Wordpress developer community to upgrade my installation. The Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin worked amazingly fast.

1. It backed up all my blog files.
2. Backed up my database.
3. Downloaded the latest version from Wordpress.
4. Put the site in maintenance mode.
5. Deactivated all active plugins.
6. Upgraded the Wordpress files.
7. Reactivated my plugins.

All I had to do was give Automatic Upgrade access to my website. Using the plugin, it took less than 3 minutes to upgrade my blog to the new platform.

A shout out to Keith Dsouza of Techie Buzz for making Automatic Upgrade free to Wordpress users. Keith is a member of that large developer community. Remember, they have my back.