When to Upgrade your Software
We got an interesting comment from Dave today that made me reflect on the question of when to update or upgrade your blog software.
Until you folks on this site tell me I’m not doing the update. WP always has some security issues when its released.
It may seem like a fairly simple question, but when should one upgrade their software? I can imagine some would immediately answer, "just keep up with the latest release and you can’t go wrong!".
Debian is known to be one of the most stable Linux distributions around. Why? Without complicating the answer, Debian are painfully slow when it comes to releasing the latest version of its supported packages. In fact, 9 our of 10 times, they are running a much older version of a particular software package. However, keep in mind that although an older package is being run, the latest revision of that package will be available.
This presents a bit of a dilemma. By running a tested and proven version of software you are less likely to run into compatibility problems, and it is probably going to be more stable. However, sometimes, the new version has particular features that you really want which forces you to not only upgrade the software package but all its modules and libraries too.
In the example of WordPress, I remember when WP 2.3 was released. I waited a few revisions before upgrading. I was glad that I did. A number of bugs and security issues were found shortly after the install. You may also remember when WP 2.1.1 got released. A hacker had broken into WordPress and placed a backdoor in the new version of code. This may be unlikely to happen again (hopefully), but it raises the point; immediate upgrades are not always the best solution.
Fruit for thought!
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Comments
debian stable is a very good example. when it comes to wordpress, i usually wait for a release that has no security bugfixes and install the previous one.
.~.
Don’t want to say, we told you so ;)
[...] who reads this blog knows that I am extremely security-minded. Upgrading when appropriate is a good thing. That means upgrading after there has been time to test the security/performance of [...]
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If you upgrade and a security issue arises, you’re just as at risk if you stay with the old version that had problems that created the need for the new version in the first place.
Best advice really is to keep a regular back-up. Then, if the worst comes to the worst at least you can recover your data.