Here are my New Year suggestion for Joomlart and the reason behind it.
1. From 1 January 2012 stop releasing new stuff for Joomla! 1.5, except if it is security or bug fix. Meaning no new templates, no new extensions.
2. Support the current Joomla! 1.5 templates and extensions till the end of 2012. This is about 8 longer than Joomla! official support for Joomla! 1.5.
3. Focus on new features, designs etc. for Joomla! 2.5/1.7.
Many people may object, but here are my reasons for the proposal:
1. You can’t support 3-4 versions of a system at the same time. This will kill your business and we will not receive new stuff with the expected quality, because you will need to make the support x3, the development x3, the testing x3 etc.
2. Joomla! 1.7 appears to be stable enough nowadays and basically, it is very doubtful that someone would start new site on Joomla! 1.5. Even it happens, he/she would have about 100 ready templates. So if the new templates are Joomla! 1.7/2.5 only, everyone will benefit.
3. You would have more time to focus on features, design, creativity and less on testing, multiplatform support etc.
4. Joomla! 1.5 supports 2 versions of Mootools, Joomla! 1.7 supports another one and Joomla! 2.5 will bring a new one. We all know that this could be a killer issue. So just drop Joomla! 1.5.
Thanks,