Scott Berkun who has been blogging for a LONG time recently published his own review centered around WordPress 2.7.
As a mostly non-practicing geek, I don’t write much code or touch command lines often, so despite my CS degree, I don’t trust myself and I wait to do this until I think it’s worth it. And this upgrade to 2.7 totally was.
Scott’s review covers the new user interface, the auto upgrader, and the new dashboard. He does have a few minor gripes as well but nothing overly worrisome.
While reading Scott’s review, he mentioned in one of his gripes that he is still confused and scared by plugins.
There are tons of these made, but it’s hard to find reliable ones that I’m confident will be supported into the future, or will stay in sync with wordpress upgrades. I’d happily pay $$$ for a pack of premier plugins that are top quality and come with some kind of promise of service.
First off, using open source software such as WordPress with open source plugins is a risk in and of itself. When you rely on a plugin for provided functionality for your site, you have to keep a realistic point of view and realize that more likely than not, that plugin developer will one day move on or cease development of the plugin.
Also, I think he’s right. I’m sure people would be willing to pay for a suite of plugins that are constantly in development and kept in sync with WordPress releases. I don’t know of anyone or any service providing a suite of plugins for purchase but I imagine someone out their is toying with the idea.
Free plugins are what makes WP a success. We don’t need more premium options, we need more competent people contributing high quality work. It’s out there, you just have to keep up.