What’s new in Joomla 3.0 ?

With just days left for the first ever World Conference to be held in San Jose, California, from November, 2012, team Joomla released yet another version of it. The alpha 3.0 version which is expected to be replaced by a 3.1 version within 30 days makes a quite entry into the web developer’s world. The latest release aimed at resolving the backward compatibility issues by extension developers will certainly bring out drastic changes in extensions in the later versions, which are expected much sooner than previously thought.
What to Expect ?

• Joomla 3.0 alpha-2, towards the end of July, to bring about improvements to user-interfaces
• Joomla 3.0 beta-1, towards the end of August, which too will be aimed at developers
• Joomla 3.0.0, on September 24, 2012, with improvised extensions

What not to Expect ?

• Not suited for production sites even after improvising on the full version
•  Not advisable to update the existing ones in lower versions, unless the extensions are compatible , plus a Long-Term-Support release of 3.5 version is on the way very soon
• No more new features as the development team will freeze requests for new features from mid August and start concentrating more on the existing features
• The nightmare from updating a Joomla 1.5 website to Joomla 2.5 will not be experienced incase of transition from 2.5 to 3.0 versions, if some clients still want to upgrade. But there is no migration path from Joomla 1.5 to 3.0.

Install Joomla 3.0 ?
The installation procedure is exactly the same as that of Joomla 2.5, but the only difference is the “Configuration” step.  Joomla 3.0 allows us to choose the type of website we intend to create from its predefined types like, a blog type, a brochure type or a standard Joomla type website.
Major Changes

• The icons listed under Quick icons on the control panel page was collapsible in 2.5 version, unlike in the recent version
• Change in the Admin ID no. of the “Super User” from 42 in Joomla 2.5 to 298 in Joomla 3.0
• Updates Required

Joomla Version
Joomla 2.5
Joomla 3.0
PHP version
5.3 & above, Min- 5.2.4 +
5.3.1 & above, Min- 5.3.1 +
My SQL version
5.0.4 & above, Min- 5.0.4 +
5.1 & above, Min- 5.1 +
Apache version
2.x & above
2.x & above
MS IIS
7
7

•    The <install> base tag introduced in 2.5 version is replaced by <extension> base tag
•    Each plug-in is in its own folder unlike in earlier versions
•    Rest notable changes are in the form of changes in the names of some classes, some classes are removed while some are moved into the CMS or within the platform
What we would Recommend
If you have a website running on an earlier version of Joomla, then we at Infyways would suggest this:
Versions
Valid Till
Right Time To Update
1.5
Sept 2012
As soon as possible as there is no possibility to migrate from 1.5 to 3.0
1.6
July 2011
At the earliest because of security concerns
1.7
Feb 2012
At the earliest because of security concerns
2.5
Oct 2013
No urgent need to update, instead wait for the upcoming 3.5 version