Joomla! 2.5 was officially released to the world today! This is the next long-term release of Joomla and will be supported for at least 18 months. There are many new features to Joomla! 2.5, including:

Look for the new 2.5 icon on JED listings

• SmartSearch Technology: Major enhancement to search your Joomla-powered sites
• New JPlatform Under the Hood: Think "big power, little footprint"
• Multi-DB Support: Long awaited by enterprise, Joomla! goes beyond MySQL
• Update Notification: From the Admin panel, you'll see whether an update is needed
• Single-click Updates: Updates in seconds right from your Admin panel
• Many More Features! See a great article with all the new features and details

But wait! The really, really great news is that it's an EASY, one-click update from 1.7 to 2.5! So head on over to the official Joomla website and grab a copy of 2.5 now!

Making the Jump to Joomla 2.5

This month we'll create and implement a game plan for migrating this User Group site from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5! With Joomla 2.5 releasing in late January, now is the perfect time to get a first-hand look at what the next long-term release of Joomla brings to the table.