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26 December 2011
There currently is no release date for Drupal 8 but my estimate is 18 - 24 months away. If you are planning on creating a new Drupal based website, I would not suggest waiting for Drupal 8 to come around unless it's a very distant project start date. Even after the Drupal 8 release, there will be a lot of bugs that need to be worked out. In all actuality, Drupal 7 has not even reached it's Plateau of Productivity. There are still many contrib modules that are not stable yet or have not been released at all for Drupal 7. There are also many contrib modules that are not even needed anymore because Drupal 7 has included the functionality in it's core. I would say that Drupal 7's Plateau of Productivity will be reached within 5-7 months.
Should I use Drupal 6?
There are not many reasons to use Drupal 6 for a new website build. Some say that Drupal 6 is a little easier to learn from a developers standpoint, but aside from that, I don't really see any reason to go with Drupal 6 unless there is some odd functionality that you need that Drupal 6 can give you and 7 can not.
Should I upgrade from Drupal 6 to 7?
A major upgrade like 6 to 7 can get messy and can be very difficult if you are not a pro Drupal developer. It is not like the security or incremental updates to Drupal core and other modules. This all depends on your website and the level of customizations that have been done to it. If you are not a developer, I would suggest, contacting us or another developer or team to assess your individual website for a major upgrade. Overall, yes I think that most Drupal 6 websites should be upgraded to 7 BUT keep in mind what I stated above and go about it in a professional and well thought out manner. Drupal 7 has some great features to take advantage of and also has a better UI and design.
