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Who knew there was so much interest in Joomla 1.6 already? Last week Joomlashack re-posted a video by Joomla 1.6 Project Lead Andrew Eddie that has taken on a life of its own, both in our own blog comments, the Twittersphere, and on Eddie's own blog, theartofjoomla.com.

If you want to read about Joomla 1.6's development and understand the decision-making process for features and changes, Eddie and all the members of the Joomla 1.6 team discuss the day-to-day management of the project in email group list that is open for all to see and is available.

For a template shop like Joomlashack, conversations like this are essential to staying aware of how changes to Joomla will affect our business. In the case of Joomla 1.6, Eddie's presentation lays out some clear realities for us and our templates. Namely, that our templates are going to need to be overhauled.

Regarding the future of templates in Joomla 1.6, Eddie writes in the comments of his own blog:

Templates for 1.6 will need styling changes because we are changing CSS styles. Will have a better idea on the details after testing during the beta period.

In his presentation, Eddie gives it to us straight:

Change is inevitable, and there are changes coming, and if you don't want change, then don't change versions.

Ok, we like change. So let's hear what he has to say on the subject of templates and Joomla 1.6. In slide 4 (see embedded below) and at minute 2:45 of his talk, Eddie tells us:

All extensions will need change... forget about legacy mode. Default layouts will change... we're moving to nice, clean semantic layouts, and only using tables when absolutely necessary or when appropriate... we don't know how bad [changes] will be until we get into the latest stages of the beta.

To catch the slides of the presentation, see below. To catch the video of the talk, see our earlier blog post.

Eddie also tells us that the Joomla 1.6 Team does not yet know how upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to 1.6 will work, but he assures the crowd that it's on their minds for later development.

The next generation of Joomla is coming. Keep on top of the latest news for Joomla 1.6