After having served the Joomla community for roughly three years, the time has come to say goodbye to Joomla 2.5. This month, support for 2.5 officially ended, which means that no more updates will be released.
Joomla 2.5 plays a key role in the Joomla history, as it was the first stable and widely embraced release after Joomla 1.5. Many sites were built on the popular platform, and I’m proud to say I’ve built my share of them as well. Compared to it’s predecessor, 2.5 was a huge step forwards. Unlike 2.5 it had a deep ACL system, a better category system and a multitude of options that made it a modern, easy to use CMS.
But technology evolves fast, and Joomla 2.5 also started to show it’s age as the community moved forward to Joomla 3.x, the new stable release. Thanks to the efforts of the developers, migrating from Joomla 2.5 to 3.x is easier than before (although comparing to a 1.5 – 2.5 migration makes everything look good in comparison). Doing so lets you enjoy the best Joomla version since it’s release. Sure, Joomla 3.x is responsive, but it’s also faster, more inituitive, up to standards and offers new options like content versioning.
So, if you’ve still got Joomla 2.5 sites, maybe it’s time to bid them farewell and upgrade them to Joomla 3.x. Of course, if you don’t want to migrate yet, you don’t have to. Joomla 2.5 is perfectly safe for the time being. But you’re missing out, big time.