[wp-hackers] WP Developer Edition

[deko]

> This sounds painfully similar to Windows Vista's versioning.

I think the idea is a good one, regardless of any similarity.

The downside of versioning is management and interoperability (mundane work for 
developers); the upside is a more customer-centric application (happier users).

What I've been seeing in these wp-hackers threads is mostly developers lobbying 
for this or that.  All well and good, and we want to promote innovation, but the 
majority of WP users don't subscribe to wp-hackers and are not interested in new 
features.  They barely know how to use what they have now.  This is why a Basic 
Edition makes sense.

An Advanced Version seems to fit WP's current trajectory, based on what I've 
been reading in this mailing list.  Yes, let's add new features.  But let's be 
considerate of our user base, many of which are happy with less features and 
more stability.  Perhaps a new Basic Edition could be released for every third 
or forth rev of the Advanced Edition.  This way development might be more 
innovation-friendly, and release of the Advanced Edition need not be tied to any 
hard schedule.

Personally, I'd like to see a Developer Edition that makes it easy to modify the 
admin pages with additional input fields and corresponding database schema, as 
well as heavily-commented code.  Some of the customizations I need to make just 
aren't plug-in friendly.