Weblog Tools Collection: Why 2.7 Is Not 3.0

Over the past few weeks, I’ve witnessed many discussions throughout the WordPress community pertaining to the version number of WordPress. Many think that because of the reworked user interface and the large number of features that this version (2.7) will contain, this should allow the software to be bumped up to version 3.0

I asked the WP-Testers mailing list to see if I could get a word from either Ryan or Matt to tell me if 2.7 would remain or if it would be bumped up to 3.0.  Jane Wells chimed in saying that Matt doesn’t want to skip version numbers anymore, and that there will be ten increments between integers, so 2.9 > 3.0, not 2.9 > 2.10. Yes, 2.7 is a major change, but the numbers are based on timing, not volume or significance of change.

So there you have it. WordPress 2.7 will be, WordPress 2.7. 2.8 will arrive then 2.9 then 3.0 etc. The feature set has no context when giving it a version number label.

While were on the topic of version numbers, it’s important to note that typically, version such as 2.7, 2.8 are major releases that usually contain new features or UI improvements. The incremental releases e.g. 2.7.1, 2.7.2 usually contain bug fixes as well as security patches. One last thing to note regarding version numbers. Each major release of WordPress is named after jazz musicians the team admires.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion regarding WordPress versioning.