By ant71 on

I have installed and used both 4.6.5 and the 4.7 beta 4 and have to say that I'm impressed with the new features in 4.7.

I am developing a production site that I would like to release in the next 6-8 weeks which is going to be powered by Drupal.

This has me stuck in the position of which version of Drupal to use.

Arguments for 4.6.5
It's a stable production release
Larger list of modules that are stable under 4.6.5

Arguments against 4.6.5
It doesn't have the extra functionality of 4.7 (which in some cases is very desirable for what I want to achieve)
About to be superceeded by 4.7

Arguments for 4.7
Extra functionality
Newer modules will more likely be written for 4.7 than older releases
If CCK is part of 4.7 or available with 4.7 then I would prefer this over flexinode (from what I have read)

Arguments against 4.7
Still in beta
Not all modules are available for 4.7 (particularly html editors for text areas)

I guess my question is, should I develop for 4.7 and hope that an official release will be available in the next 6-8 weeks, along with my desired modules which aren't yet available, or do I stick with 4.6.5 and look to upgrade somewhere in the not too distant future?

Does anyone have any rough estimate of when 4.7 might come out of beta? (I know this might be asking how long is a piece of string).

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on which version I should use?

Thanks.

Comments

bradlis7’s picture

bradlis7 commented

I'd go with 4.6 myself, because there are fewer bugs. Since 4.7 is in beta, it's not meant to go on live sites, and is not expected to be completely smooth. It may go smooth by chance, but 4.6 is 98% guaranteed to be smooth because it's used by so many people.

This is only my personal opinion.
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Bradlis7.com | Churchofchristnet

ant71’s picture

ant71 commented

That's the way I was leaning. I definitely don't want beta code up on a production server, and have no idea how long it will take to get 4.7 out of beta.

shamrockvi’s picture

shamrockvi commented

I'm using 4.7 (actually CVS) code on 3 production sites right now.

I've moved from 4.7 betas to cvs only due to an issue with blogapi which the CVS resolves.

Why am I saying go 4.7? Well it entriely depends on which modules you need. If your needs are covered by modules already 4.7ised then you may as well go 4.7. BTW I've found the stability on 4.7 betas to be better than 4.6 was on release.

If there are some module which you must have that are only 4.6 (and after testing wont run on 4.7 then obviously go 4.6). But remember to try the CVS versions.

Whilst "best practice" would say dont use beta code in production, IMHO the 4.7 beta code is more than stable enough for small to medium size sites - I haven't got a site big enough to coment on its stability under real stress.

Additionally I'd say now is the best time to launch with "beta" code - everyone is working hard and the activity levels are high, so if you do find a bug the turnaround time on a fix is likely to be faster.

My $0.02

ant71’s picture

ant71 commented

Apart from being beta software (and you argue well in favour of going with 4.7) is that TinyMCE, or other editing tools are not yet available for 4.7.

I noticed that tinyMCE is listed as available, but the download doesn't contain any files apart from a translation file and a license text file.

gopherspidey’s picture

gopherspidey commented

I have tried the CVS version of tinyMCE. It works fine. I think that tinyMCE has CVS tagging issues, so that not all files are getting into the 4.7 tar file.

linulo’s picture

linulo commented

I put a CVS snapshot of TinyMCE here here and it works fine on the site I am developing. drupal.org's automated CVS system is easily confused by single files flagged for 4.7.

I would go for 4.7. What does "production site" mean anyways? Does it mean every failure would cost you thousands of $$ or your job?

If I were you I would try to estimate how much total work will have to be put into site administration for the next 12 months. I am sure it will be less if you choose 4.7 today. Module missing? Port it, it may be less work than upgrade problems you may run into when updating from 4.6. and in the process you can learn valuable things.

4.7. it is for me. But then again, nobody will even notice if my site failed for a few hours. :-)