PHP 4.4.9 Released (And Why You Should Be Worried If You Consider Installing It)

Today is a day many people have been looking forward to for quite some time. No, it's not mass-marrying on 8-8-08, it's the day after the release of PHP 4.4.9. The important fact of this release is that it will be the final one for PHP 4. Ever. (Well, of course there might be the scenario of companies offering posthumous security patches, but that doesn't count here.) If you are still not convinced that PHP 4 is at the end of its life, just have a look at the changelog: the previous release is seven months old, and since then only five issues have been fixed.

I am aware that many sites, especially those with really old legacy code, will still not update (heck, I even know of some large PHP 3 based sites running strong [and insecure]), but if you have the resources to update your code base, you should do so really soon. PHP 5.3 will (most probably) be released later this year, and PHP 6 will get rid of a lot of stuff that has only been kept for the sake of backwards compatibility.