Slow news day: CiviCRM version 6, and Standalone CiviCRM
It’s a slow news day here at the CiviCRM desk.
In the next few months, you might start to hear more about a couple of developments in CiviCRM that sound like they might be a big deal:
CiviCRM version 6.0
CiviCRM Standalone
The short story is not quite as exciting (or risky) as one might think. If you’re fascinated by upgrade-related drama, you’ll be disappointed here.
So what’s up?
In March of this year, CiviCRM plans to relesae version 6.0, which sounds like it might be a major upgrade (with lots of potential for breaking things) from the long-standing 5.x series.
In truth, the upgrade from 5.x to 6.0 is expected to be as boring and uneventful as an upgrade from 5.81.0 to 5.81.1.
One thing that will change — which you still probably won’t even notice — is that as of CiviCRM 6.0, the project will officially support a Standalone installation.
That is, if you could install and CiviCRM without a content management system (e.g. Drupal, WordPress, etc.) if you wanted.
If that gets your attention because you’ve always wanted to do that, then this is great news of course.
For the rest of us, who are quite content running under Drupal or WordPress (or something similar), it’s a polite yawn.
So why am I telling you about it? Two reasons:
Maybe you are interested in a Standalone version of CiviCRM — or know someone who might be. In that case, this is a hint to keep your ear to the ground in March.
Maybe you’ll hear about Standalone and CiviCRM 6.0 from somebody else, and wonder what trouble it might mean for you. (After all, a “major version upgrade” sometimes means lots of headaches.) In that case, this is a word of assurance: this is no major version upgrade at all. Just a little rebranding, and barely even that.
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
All the best,
A.