Interdependent Web

I'm counting down the days until Drupal 7 goes beta... no one knows at this point exactly when that will be; they're shooting for November 15, but with more than 400 critical issues remaining today that seems unlikely.  I've already installed a development copy so I can check out the administrative options, but without any content the front-end doesn't look like much.  I will tell you that the image you see there was uploaded using the new image-handling tools that are now part of Drupal's core functionality -- no longer do you need to choose between various contributed modules just to use images on a site!  It doesn't sound like much, but it's a big step.

What may be more interesting is that I've put together a Google spreadsheet so that I can keep track of when each of the sites I maintain is ready for upgrade to Drupal 7.  Each site is represented by a column with a colored background: green is more than 75% ready, yellow is more than 50% ready, and all the other sites are red.  Each module is represented by a row with colored text: red means a Drupal 7 version is not yet underway, orange means it is in development, and green means it is finished.  (Core modules are technically still in development, but I show them as green because I've tried them out already and they seem to work.)

If it looks discouraging to you, that's the point: the news about Drupal 7 is so exciting that I needed a reality check to keep me from trying to upgrade sites before they're ready!  As you can see, this site is actually the least prepared, with only 27% of its modules green and a whopping 56% red, so it won't be the first of my sites to make the leap!