Hi everyone! Hope you all had a nice summer vacation in some nice place (even if it was just a virtual place ;))

I personally went through a lot of crazy adventures, not the least of them being moving from France to California... then meeting a lot of people around here! (I blogged a bit about it in French only... )

Also... since living in California is actually quite expensive, I figured it would help to take on some extra client work this summer, which left me less free time to work on b2evolution those last couple of months.

Fortunately, Yabba's been pretty active in the meantime and b2evolution 3.0 should be pretty yabbariffic !! :D All I can tell you right now is that's it's gonna be even better than AJAX!

We will most likely have a 2.4.3 service release fixing some bugs this month and then we'll move on directly to version 3.0 with some big new features! More on that later...

Also, I'll be at Blogworld Expo in Las Vegas on the 20th and 21st this month. (I still can't believe it's just an hour away from home now!) If you're going too, email me, post a comment or even ping me on twitter. I'd be delighted to meet you and talk about the evolution of b2evo... ;)

Finally, I've been thinking about replacing that "Multilingual multiuser multiblog engine" baseline up there with "Easy as a blog, powerful as a CMS". What do you think? :?: (or maybe this isn't even proper English... LOL)

LunarPages has published an interview with François Planque (that's me :p) — project maintainer of b2evolution.

It was about time we released an enhanced 2.4-stable! Here it is!

b2evolution version 2.4.2 "Palms" is the same awesome stable version as 2.4.1 with removed bugs and added skins! It's even nicer to use as many little quirks have been ironed out and it is also nicer to look at as it has 3 additional cool skins preinstalled: Pixel Green, Terrafirma and Vastitude (All these skins are new versions for 2.4).

Download here »

Upgrading from 2.4.1 is insanely easy too: just download this ZIP file containing only modified files from version 2.4.1 to 2.4.2 and replace the files on your server.

If you are running 2.4.0, download the complete ZIP and replace files on your server (except /conf/basic_config.php).

If you are running an older version download the complete ZIP and follow the instructions within. (This general procedure works for ALL previous versions from 0.8 to 2.4.1).

Changes summary:

• New skins (including support for default widget containers)
  
  • Terrafirma
  • PixelGreen
  • Vastitude
• Improved compatibility with older skins.
• Fixed calendar bug when entering DST on the last week of the month.
• Fixed bug with date entry (months were off by 1 month, again...)
• Fixed bug with individual post footers.
• Fixed additional minor bugs.

I am getting more and more requests for custom work around b2evolution. The problem is I cannot do it. Even if it's well paid!

I am overbooked big time! So are the other b2evolution developers. Plus, I absolutely want to save time for working on general development of b2evolution.

So I want to pass those leads out to you! If you have some decent experience with b2evolution and you are looking for freelance work, either design or development/programming, or if you have a custom development company offering those services, please let me know. Send me an email or leave a comment. Let me also know if you'd like to be listed publicly.

The most common requests I get are variations of the following:

• Can you design a skin matching my current site?

• Can you port/convert my WordPress theme to b2evolution?

• Can you help me with installation on my server?

• Can you help me integrate my blog(s) into my site?

• Can you program a plugin to do x, y or z?

• Can you help me optimize my site?

Again, if you can do any of these, I have clients for you! Drop me a line! ;)

Note: You have to discuss the details and prices with the clients yourself. I'm just passing leads to you (for free!) and then I'm out of the loop.

Edit: I have created a page listing b2evolution professionals. I will send all my leads contacts to this page and let them decide for themselves. Instructions to be listed are included on that page. ;)

b2evolution version 2.4.1 "Nevada" has been released. This is the first 2.x release we consider to be rock stable!

Download b2evolution 2.4.1 »

This version basically builds upon the already stable 2.4.0 with weeks of merciless bug fixing. There is no major fix but a lot of little things that have been ironed out.

Also, upgrading from 2.4.0 is merely a 5 minute file upload operation. There are no database changes. It is not necessary to run the install/upgrade script. And needless to say, it is not necessary to update your skins.

Upgrade is highly recommended for all users. As of May 1st, the 1.10 branch will no longer be maintained.

Major changes:

• Added some basic quicktags in simple edit mode.
• "Blog Logo" renamed to "Image / Blog logo".
• Enhanced comment forms with optional customization features. Removed extra fieldsets.
• Cosmetic enhancements.
• iPhone optimizations.
• Fixed wording in various places.
• New powered_by( array() ) skin tag (can be used to replace the long html blurb that was used before).
• Plenty of small bug fixes.

Next version should be 2.5-beta which will introduce new features and hence be less stable.

I'm currently at SxSW in Austin Texas. It was on my way back to France ;) If you're around and want to meet up, please contact me.

The SxSW website is actually powered by b2evolution (with no less than 9 blogs throughout the entire site) but they wouldn't advertise that publicly. Nor did they actually invite me here. Sadly enough, the first panel I attended here was titled "Respect!". Yeah, right...

Anyway, this is already more than enough publicity for them. But as said, I'll be happy to meet you if you're here! :)

Other than that, I'll be back home and will get some releasing done as soon as I recover from jet lag :P