WordPress 3.2: Faster and lighter

For Subscribers

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For Subscribers

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCBP leaders cut out of Trump ad buy decision

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCornell rape allegation pushes embattled New York prosecutor into national spotlight

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAbdul El-Sayed tries to woo MAHA voters as Democrats seek inroads with RFK’s supporters

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

FOR SUBSCRIBERSGOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race

FOR SUBSCRIBERSRecords reveal tumultuous marriage between slain New York Times executive and wife

FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

FOR SUBSCRIBERSThis Paralympian has two goals: Win medals and give away $500,000 to her teammates

The newest version of WordPress arrived two days ago and in 24 hours, about 330,000 downloads of the free, open source software had taken place.

Matt Mullenweg's WordPress News blog post about the update characterizes the 15th major release of WordPress as "faster and lighter" with an emphasis on "a refreshed dashboard design that tightens the typography, design, and code behind the admin." 

The most recent version of WordPress prior to this, 3.1, was released four months ago and surpassed the 15 million download threshold on Monday.

It also introduces the fully HTML5 Twenty Eleven theme, which is in line with WordPress' plan to replace the default theme every year. It has a redesigned post editor that allows bloggers to enter a "distraction-free writing or zen mode" that fills up the screen. "All of the widgets, menus, buttons, and interface elements fade away to allow you to compose and edit your thoughts in a completely clean environment conducive to writing, but when your mouse strays to the top of the screen your most-used shortcuts are right there where you need them," Mullenweg states.

We feel more zen already. You?

WordPress 3.2 is available both as an update in your dashboard and a download on WordPress.org. It is also being called "Gershwin" in honor of the pianist and composer. In no time at all, "Rhapsody in Blue" should be playing in the background noise of your head, to get you in the right mindset to appreciate 3.2, which, like Gershwin, "lets you take familiar elements and weave them into something unique."

Lines like that, and more, can be found in this promo video:

It also comes with updated security, which we get into more details with in this post. More specs on 3.2 can be found here.

More stories:

• Unpatched WordPress blogs distribute malware
• Will Tumblr be the Facebook to Wordpress' MySpace?
• WordPress.com Data Breach Puts Millions of Bloggers at Risk

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