WordPress is getting ready to release the latest version of their blogging software — 2.5 — to the general public. No official date has been set. The team skipped the 2.4 release (Christmas, New Year, and a new child for one of the lead developers contributed to that decision), and the coming version is already a few weeks past the original schedule.

The first release candidate came out on March 18th, RC 2 just two days ago, and about three hours ago they made RC 3 available.

As with most updates, the reader will probably see very few changes. Most of the modifications are “under the hood” where only the owner will notice. One thing that will be noticed by readers is the addition of native Gravatars. Those who have signed up will see their gravatars displayed on comments. To see this in action (If you have a free Gravatar account) go to the test blog I have set up. I’ve put a comment with my Gravatar on this post.

WordPress users be aware, there are extensive changes on the back end. Things will look and feel much different for you. As with any new release be prepared for some tweaking. Nearly all themes will function as expected with the new release, not many changes were made to the theme calls. And while more plugins will work than won’t, broken ones are always a possibility.

Stay tuned.

ADDED: If you want to take a look behind the curtain, I’ve temporarily set the test blog up so you can register. Those who register are given the default role of Author. That will let you see most of what is going on behind the scenes.