The upgrade process was a snap thanks to this guide. The whole process took about 20 mins (backup, downloading the new version, overwriting, setting up plugins, and tweaking the template). Luckily, none of the plugins I use had any problems (including the Actionstreams plugin).

Here’s what I like about this release:

• Visual Editor: The interface is less cluttered and slick. The full-screen version rocks.
• Tags: Even though they were introduced as a core functionality in a previous release, they weren’t really usable until the new AJAXy version came along in this release.
• Widget-based dashboard: Now plugins can use the Dashboard screen real-estate for administrative information like the WP Stats widget.
• Lightweight UI: The UI looks more current than the previous ‘99 style. It looks more customizable, so I’m hoping for a outbreak of WP Admin themes (like the useful Fluency theme).
• Related section: In most admin pages, there is a nifty new section titled simply “Related”. It has a list of links that are related to the current page (writing a post, editing categories, managing comments, etc.)
• Multi-file uploading (with progress bar): It’s very similar to the Flickr uploader. Its intuitive, easy and just works.
• Built-in galleries: Though I’m not sure if I’ll ever use this, its good to know that I could roll out my own gallery instead of having to install another app. Amazingly, you only need to include the text in your post to turn it into a gallery (complete with navigation).

I highly recommend watching the 4-min screencast by Matt Mullenweg about the new Dashboard and Editor features.

For the curious, no additional tweaks were needed for the Grid Focus theme (the one used on my blog) to work in WP 2.5.

Download Wordpress 2.5 here.

Download:

• Download Actionstreams Wordpress Plugin from Stephen’s blog
• Download from DiSo (latest)

Installation steps:

1. Download and unzip the file into /wp-content/plugins
2. Activate the “Actionstream” plugin through the WP Plugins admin page
3. Go to Users > Action Stream and set up your services with the needed info
4. As you add services, you should start to see actions in the Preview section
5. Add <?php actionstream_render(); ?> where ever you want to display it in your template

Updates:

• Mar 9, 2008: Mark Krynsky over at Lifestream Blog had the scoop even before I could finish hacking it up.
• Mar 10, 2008: Stephen updated the code (bugfixes and more services now supported). Download v0.11
• Mar 11, 2008: Stephen blogged about the plugin. Download here.
• Mar 18, 2008: Stephen released v0.2 of the plugin. Download here.