Don’t update your software/services just to update

Last night, Wordpress 2.5 got released to the public, and although I’ve had a decent time with upgrading our internal mirror for testing purposes and a couple projects still in development, it’s fried a few people, especially with those with lots of plugins or plugins that are actually meant for a little bit older version but have skated by.

I don’t blame Wordpress for this at all… this is a good time for a lesson.

When it comes to any new software or service release, I think it’s wise on production systems that you’re counting on to wait until the bugs come out.   Whenever you have an environment (your setup of computers, servers, programs, etc) that you’re counting on, restraint should be shown unless it’s a critical security release.   There is no way to test everything in every configuration.  And of course, as always, make sure there is a backup of your site or materials before jumping into everything.

You could lose days when you monkey with things that are working.  Not a web site, but I know someone who lost two days because of inadvertently deleting a USB driver.  Now, if they had had a complete, bootable backup, they could of re-imaged his Windows (put the exact copy back… a great program on the mac is Carbon Copy Cloner, I’m not a Windows guy, so suggests are welcome) and be back in business.

Sometimes, when things are working, it’s really not a smooth move to start messing with stuff.  Have a second, non-crucial system if you’re going to do it.

p.s. - Go Tigers!