I just updated a multilingual multisite to WordPress 4.2 – without opening my FTP-client, editing settings files, are even clicking away from the WP dashboard. It works just out of the box. Awesome!
This is the first major WordPress release of 2015. There are some noticeable improvements. What do I think about them?
- Changing themes directly in the customizer – will save some time especially if you set up many sites like I do
- Better support for embeds – Tumblr is good and all, but I normally go the other way around, posting from my WP to tumblr (and I don’t want to embed other people’s blogs). Sharing youtube video’s is useful though
- Faster plugin update – Comes in handy, especially in an experimental environment where you try out many plugin’s latest versions
- Under the hood improvements – WP_Query & co have improved sorting functionality. I’d like to see some performance stats there.
The introduction video is flashy – and appeals to a large audience. When they said “You can now tell the world about your love for cats, cookies, and even jazz – without using a single world” I frowned. Where is the “code is poetry” gone? And doesn’t it only work when all that code is actually used to support poetry? I see WordPress as a powerful tool to the typography and lead people to the meaning behind the written word. It sounds like a paradox, but good design and user interface is all we have to fight the shortening of the attention span everybody seems to suffer from;-