@Patrick Daly - This is the problem - if its automatically upgraded and crashes, there's no backup to restore (and wordpress always advises that you backup eveything before you update, so you aren't sure it will be safe - you can't possibly be, because you can't possibly have tested all the unknown hardware and system configurations its running on, never mind the combinations of flaky and incredibly complex plugins that exist (and 'my' special one that you've never seen and never will)). The Nextgen debacle should be a warning to anyone considering automatic updates of a complex and user modifiable system. As an ex-IT professional, this is one of the most stupid ideas I've heard. Fundamental - you know little about the client system, you can't know everything about the client system, and you won't be able to do anything to help the hapless user recover from a disaster caused by an unwanted, untested update. Or are people not supposed to use WordPress for any commercially important system?