After one year of development we are ready to release Drupal 6.0 to the world. Thanks to the tireless work of the Drupal community, over 1,600 issues have been resolved during the Drupal 6.0 release cycle. These changes are evident in Drupal 6's major usability improvements, security and maintainability advancements, friendlier installer, and expanded development framework. Further, from bug fix to feature request, these issues follow-through on the Drupal project's continued commitment to deliver flexibility and power to themers and developers.

Today, Drupal powers sites including the homepages of Warner Brothers Records, The New York Observer, Fast Company, and Amnesty International and project sites by SonyBMG, Forbes, Harvard University, and more. Drupal can be used to create personal weblogs (Tim Berners-Lee), deliver podcasts (TWIT.tv), connect online communities (SpreadFireFox.com), form artist collectives (Terminus 1525) or inform the masses (The Onion).

What's new

The Drupal 6.0 release contains many improvements, some visible from the first click, and others hidden beneath the hood. For a quick video tour, check out Greg Knaddison's "New features in Drupal 6.0 screencast", or one of the other screencasts linked below. While the complete list of changes is too lengthy to list here, we have included just a few of the reasons we're so excited about Drupal 6.

Introducing the easiest version of Drupal ever.
There are only so many clicks in a day. With Drupal 6, the smooth new installer will get your web project up and running in minutes. More time for you to enjoy the new and intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

Quick and easy setup
Installing Drupal is now a snap, since the new installer guides you quickly through the process. You can even import translations of the Drupal interface from within the installer and enjoy Drupal in your own language right from the start. You'll be posting content in minutes!

Drag-and-drop administration
Use drag-and-drop to create and manage your site's menus. Move blocks around to change the content on your pages, or organize books intuitively by dragging pages within an outline. The drag-and-drop interface is available for menu items, forums, taxonomy terms, uploaded files, input formats, profile fields, and more.

All languages spoken here!
Translate posts to different languages through an easy interface. Have Drupal automatically choose a language for the interface based on a custom URL, a user setting or browser preferences. Take advantage of left-to-right and right-to-left language support directly "out-of-the-box". Check out a screencast by Michael F and another one by Greg Knaddison.

Great new core modules.

The sleek and slender core Drupal distribution includes impressive new features.

Actions and triggers
Need a custom workflow? Want to send customized e-mails when a post is created or control how posts are published? Automate your processes with just a few clicks using the new and powerful "actions" feature. No programming knowledge required! Actions are available for posts, users, comments and more.

Sign in with OpenID
OpenID support is built in, making it even easier for your visitors to become a member of your site. OpenID is a free and easy way to use a single digital identity across the internet. With OpenID, login to all your favorite websites and forget about the online paperwork.

Update status module
Always know when new versions or security fixes are available. The update status module stays in touch with drupal.org to keep you informed of new versions of Drupal, your modules and your themes.

Theming: it's never been easier.

Customizing the look and feel of your site is easier, just as powerful, and even more flexible.

CSS-only theming
Define regions, dependencies and features with simple theme .info files without writing a line of PHP code, opening the door to slim CSS-only themes.
Theme developer module
Drupal 6 supports new tools for themers, including the exciting Theme Developer module (a separate download). It's the equivalent of Firebug, but for Drupal theming and will greatly enhance your theming workflow. Check out the screencast by Moshe Weitzman.

Customize your theme
Want to change how something looks? Almost all themeable content now uses separate template files written in simple HTML, so just copy a template to your theme directory and modify as desired. No coding - no hassle. Watch the screencast by Earl Miles.

Enhanced preprocessing
Preprocessing functions free themers from maintaining PHP code (the template.php file) in themes. Themes remain just as flexible as before and with improved, comprehensive documentation, are even easier to use.
A unified approach
Drupal 6 extends its themeing support and automatic translation features to interface elements provided by JavaScript.
Updated jQuery
Since the release of Drupal 5, Drupal has leveraged the powerful JavaScript library jQuery to deliver its interface enhancements and Ajax interactions. Drupal 6 continues this tradition, using jQuery to provide an even richer user experience. The jQuery version 1.2.3 is included with Drupal 6.

Source: http://drupal.org/drupal-6.0

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