Upgrade from 0.9.x to 1.10.3 or 2.4rc2

If you are still running a 0.* version you NEED to upgrade. EVERYTHING from back then is obsolete and unsupported, and more importantly you’re missing out on lots of really cool stuff. Now that we know you’re going to upgrade the only thing to figure out is "what version will you upgrade to", so let’s look at that. By the way the only choices discussed here are 1.10.3 and 2.4.0-RC2, with 240RC2 being the better option but hey it’s up to you.

1. Your customized skin will NOT work in 1.10.3 or 2.* so it’s not part of the equation.
2. Any hacks you picked up in the forums or created on your own won’t work in 1.10.3 or 2.* so they are not part of the equation.
3. All of your posts and comments and users and profiles and settings WILL be retained in either 1.10.3 or 2.* so that too is not part of the equation.

1.10.3 has some benefits…

• It is the most rock-solid super-stable release available.
• It has a LOT of skins available.
• Whatever you need to know is already covered somewhere.
• There is a pretty good list of plugins available too.

…and some drawbacks

• It is the end of the 1.* generation and will probably never see another release.
• No one is making skins or plugins for it anymore - and why would anyone?
• THE UPGRADER SCRIPT HAS SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS!

2.4.0-RC2 has some benefits…

• It is incredibly stable, with no significant performance issues identified.
• The 2.* generation is where the active development and support is happening.
• The admin side is light-years ahead of everything that has gone before.
• Your entire sidebar can be built and ordered via the back office - no more file edits.
• The plugin system is stronger, so we are starting to see more better plugins than ever before.

…and some drawbacks

• It has a dash in it’s number.
• It doesn’t say "Stable" next to it’s name on the downloads page.

Backup your database before you start because you’ll need it if you don’t. And of course backup all your files - especially your conf/ and media/ folders!