Update: As of July 4th 2011, this is now a reality. Here’s the article.
Well kiddies, we’re ringing in the new year with what I believe to be good news! WordPress is going to stop supporting PHP 4 and MySQL 4 – this means we get to have more freedom in the way we extend upon WordPress! /happydance
Straight from the WordPress Codex:
Switching to PHP5 « WordPress Codex
From version 3.2 (Estimated to arrive in 2011), WordPress will cease to be supported under PHP 4, with the minimum required PHP version being PHP 5.2.
They published on their official announcement here:
Our approach with WordPress has always been to make it run on common server configurations. We want users to have flexibility when choosing a host for their precious content. Because of this strategy, WordPress runs pretty much anywhere. Web hosting platforms, however, change over time, and we occasionally are able to reevaluate some of the requirements for running WordPress. Now is one of those times. You probably guessed it from the title — we’re finally ready to announce the end of support for PHP 4 and MySQL 4!
First up, the announcement that developers really care about. WordPress 3.1, due in late 2010, will be the last version of WordPress to support PHP 4.
For WordPress 3.2, due in the first half of 2011, we will be raising the minimum required PHP version to 5.2. Why 5.2? Because that’s what the vast majority of WordPress users are using, and it offers substantial improvements over earlier PHP 5 releases. It is also the minimum PHP version that the Drupal and Joomla projects will be supporting in their next versions, both due out this year.
The numbers are now, finally, strongly in favor of this move. Only around 11 percent of WordPress installs are running on a PHP version below 5.2. Many of them are on hosts who support PHP 5.2 — users merely need to change a setting in their hosting control panel to activate it. We believe that percentage will only go down over the rest of the year as hosting providers realize that to support the newest versions of WordPress (or Drupal, or Joomla), they’re going to have to pull the trigger.
The more exciting thing is – they have added measures to keep users from arbitrarily breaking their sites by upgrading:
WordPress users will not be able to upgrade to WordPress 3.2 if their hosting environment does not meet these requirements (the built-in updater will prevent it).
Which I think is a fantastic move. I’m glad they’ve collected enough information to support this move. I believe the developing masses will benefit from this! ^_^
So remember: Keep current, Keep happy, Keep hacking.