I am in the process of deploying the latest release of WordPress to our sites and the ones my company, Outcome Labs, manages for clients. WordPress 6.1, the third major release to the WordPress platform this year, was released on November 1, 2022. Like all major WordPress releases, this release has been named after a jazz musician. This release was named for Soviet-Norwegian jazz pianist Mikhail “Misha” Alperin. Alperin was a founding member of the first Moldavian jazz quartet and, later, the Moscow Art Trio.
You can check out the post the Outcome Labs team did for more details of the release. I started using WordPress in 2007. It has evolved and matured a lot from its “humble” beginnings as a blogging platform. We have used it as a foundation for dozens of successful projects. We have also had to go through several significant transitions in how we built solutions as the platform has expanded and matured.
I see this release is another significant milestone in the evolution of the WordPress platform. The Site Editor that has been developed as part of the Gutenberg project, has been significantly enhanced. While it is still in beta, it has matured enough that block themes that use the Site Editor can now be considered as a viable alternative to classic PHP-based themes for some types of projects. I am in the process of converting the site used by our local WordPress meetup group to the new Twenty Twenty-Three theme that was released as part of WordPress 6.1. We will be sharing what we discover there and on the Outcome Labs blog. I will also share my personal impressions on what this next step forward means to members of the WordPress community.
The WordPress platform has been a great tool for me for fifteen years. It has enabled me to learn, to publish, to connect, and to grow a business. When big changes happen with something you depend on like that, it is not unusual to feel some trepidation. I won’t say that I haven’t in the past and won’t this time, but the strength of the platform and the community that supports it has always overcome that and delivered great results.