Here are some interesting Joomla blog posts I found during the last week.

Of course, the hot topic in the Joomla sphere last week was the release of version 1.6.

Brian Teeman has done a post with links to movies, presentations and articles about Joomla 1.6. Ryan Ozimek presented Joomla at CodeMash, Amy Stephen has looked at overriding 1.6 framework classes and the project thanks the volunteers.

In other news, there is info on the Santiago Times Joomla site, about Joomla friendly hosting and the release of NinjaBoard 1.0, to mention some.

In the wake of the Joomla! 1.6 release this week, there are a lot of questions buzzing around.

Among them are questions on how Joomla 1.6 will impact the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED).

I talked to Matt Lipscomb of the Community Leadership Team, and JED/JRD Co-Manager. He had some interesting thougts to share around the subject.

When Joomla 1.6 was released, one of the first questions people had was if current Joomla extensions would be compatible. It's been known for a long time that the changes in Joomla 1.6 mean that every single extension used needs an update.

For some developers, this is an easy task. For others, it's something compared to a nightmare.

I asked a group of developers to share their opinions on the Joomla 1.6 release, and what it will mean for their companies.

As I wrote in my post on the Joomla 1.6 launch - much of the success of version 1.6 will depend on the availability of extensions and templates.

As I wrote yesterday, lots of people are talking about the migration of websites from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6.

Yesterday's interview with developer Matias Aguirre has resulted in a connection between him an more people in the community. I hope this will result in a powerful and stable migration script as soon as possible.

I also noticed a sharp increase in the traffic to my 2009 post Migration from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6 will be easy. There's no doubt that this subject is something people are concerned about.

In October 2009, I wrote a blog post about migrating a Joomla! 1.5 site to version 1.6. I gave it the ambitious title of Migration from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6 will be easy. And it probably will. When the script is ready.

However, Joomla 1.6 was released this week without a migration script in place. When I started to look at the state of this script, it seemed everything stopped back in 2009. Apparently, there was little interest from developers to create this script.

After some digging, I contacted Matias Aguirre, the one who started the original discussion around a Joomla 1.6 migrator script. He responded immediately, and I got some more info on the script. Matias has been working on a script called jUpgrade. It's partially working, but he needs help finishing it.

To prepare for the launch of Joomla! 1.6, a group of 27 people from all over the world came together in a Skype group.

For five days, there was a constant discussion on things related to the launch. People were signing in and out depending on their schedule and time-zone. The discussion was lively, but extremely productive.

Using Google documents, people were working though the weekend to get everything in place. It was incredible to see the community come together like this to produce something for the common good.

After the release of Joomla 1.6 GA, it's just natural to have a chat with the lead developer: Andrew Eddie.

Andrew has been with the Joomla project since the Mambo days and has been leading the Production Leadership Team for some time now.

I managed to get some thoughts from him around the release of Joomla 1.6. Read on for an interview with "Mr. Joomla" where he talks about the process leading up to the release, new features, and feelings around community involvement.

The Joomla Bug Squad has been instrumental in getting to where we are today. These people have relentlessly hunted for and squashed bugs in the software.

Without them, no-one knows when we would have seen the current version.

Although there are still many bugs in the software, they will be squashed in the weeks and months ahead. Again, the Bug Squad will be an important part of this process.

And so will you and I - we all need to chip in and report bugs, test the software and make sure 1.6 evolves into something as stable as the Joomla 1.5 we already know.

Today, Joomla! 1.6.0 has been released. The wait has been long, and now it's finally here!

Of course, there are still things to be resolved. The version is not released as stable, because it still contains bugs.

Even so, I think it's important to get the software out there. Developers need to rewrite their extensions. Template designers need to update and create new templates. Users need to test and learn the new version.

Here are some interesting Joomla blog posts I found during the last week.

Jeremy Wilken has written a really nice review of 2010 and shares some thoughts on 2011.

And Anthony Olsen shares his and Kyle Ledbetter's top Joomla templates for 2010.

Enjoy!

AdminPraise3 is the third iteration of the Joomla admin template concept by PixelPraise. This version takes another step forward in improving the administration of Joomla.

AdminPraise3 tries to improve how you work with the administrator. Kyle Ledbetter of PixelPraise has initiated collaboration with several Joomla component developers to create specific modules for the AdminPraise template.

This means you can have customized modules showing information from your favorite components on the dashboard or in other places in the admin.

Here are some interesting Joomla blog posts I found during the last week.

There is a post about upgrading to Joomla 1.6, some info from Joomla Bamboo about their new products, a new version of Tienda ecommerce, some thoughts on the introduction of "virtual currency" for the Joomla community, as well as some ideas for making Joomla more powerful.

Enjoy the read!