In the early hours of July 13th 2012, Joomla announced that Joomla 3.0 Alpha 1 was available for download! This is the first step towards a public release of Joomla 3.0.0, which is set to be available on or around September 24th, 2012.
What is new in the Joomla 3.0 Alpha-1 release?
Unless you’re a custom extension developer, don’t get too excited just yet. This alpha version of Joomla 3.0 is geared towards developers only, those who create plugins, modules, and components.
There have been some platform changes in Joomla 3.0, and that is what this alpha version mostly contains. We’ve tested it, and there are only minimal changes to the frontend and backend at this time. If you’re a developer and interested in learning more about those changes, click here to learn more about changes and potential issues that may be caused by Joomla 3.0.
Want to install Joomla 3.0? Visit this page for our Joomla 3.0 installation guide.
What’s next to be released in the Joomla 3.0 series?
The Joomla team announced the following dates over the next few weeks / months in which they expect to release additional versions of Joomla 3.0:
| Date | Joomla Version |
|---|---|
| July 23, 2012 | Joomla 3.0 alpha-2 Alpha-2 is planned to be released in late July, which will feature changes and improvements to the user-interface |
| Mid August, 2012 | Feature Freeze The development team will stop taking request for new features so that they may focus on completing the current features that have already been added |
| Late August, 2012 | Joomla 3.0 beta 1 The first beta of Joomla 3.0 is set to launch for public testing. Again, the current release is Alpha-1 which is aimed at developers. Most users instead will be waiting on this beta version. |
| Sept. 24, 2012 | Joomla 3.0.0 Not an exact date, but the Joomla team believes that Joomla 3.0.0 will be available in late September, 2012. |
