WordPress 3.5 has been downloaded more than 20 million times.
The latest version of WordPress just hit the 20 million download milestone this afternoon, according to the WordPress.org download counter.
It marks the third consecutive major release of WordPress that’s topped 20 million downloads as 3.2 and 3.3 also surpassed the 20 million mark — keeping WordPress at the top of the list in terms of the most downloaded content management system on the web.
WordPress 3.4 was actually downloaded more than 28 million times before 3.5 came along, so it’ll be interesting to see if the latest version tops that, although there’s already a beta of 3.6 released. WordPress 3.6 Beta 3 was released on May 11.
That’s a big month for WordPress, despite some negative publicity of late coming from botnet attacks hitting sites with poorly selected passwords for WordPress users and other content management systems where admin passwords aren’t secure.
Over the past month, WordPress saw more than 100,000 downloads a day and more than 3 million downloads.
WordPress release dates and posts like this serve as a good reminder to mix up your passwords and avoid using easy to guess usernames such as “admin.” In fact, by default your username is the same name WordPress pulls as your byline/author name, so to keep your username secure be sure to use a WordPress “nickname” that’s different from your actual WordPress username to make your user account that much trickier to hack.
To make sure your passwords is secure, be sure to use passwords that are:
- Long – make sure they’re at least eight or more characters.
- Complex – Include letters (capital and lower case), punctuation, symbols and numbers.
- Variation – Keep your passwords effective by changing them every 90 days or so.
- Variety – Don’t use the same password for everything.
Keep an eye out for the next release of WordPress on the WordPress.org blog, and be sure to back up your WordPress installation before upgrading.