WordPress has finally decided to move on to supporting PHP version 5 and dropping support for PHP version 4 since PHP 5 adds many new features and design changes that make developing robust, secure, feature-rich software faster and easier. This decision is in-line with many open-source projects such as Joomla and Drupal, who have already decided to move to PHP 5. Not only will WordPress drop support for PHP 4, but will also discontinue support for MySQL 4 as well.
Our approach with WordPress has always been to make it run on common server configurations. We want users to have flexibility when choosing a host for their precious content. Because of this strategy, WordPress runs pretty much anywhere. Web hosting platforms, however, change over time, and we occasionally are able to reevaluate some of the requirements for running WordPress. Now is one of those times. You probably guessed it from the title — we’re finally ready to announce the end of support for PHP 4 and MySQL 4!
In less exciting news, we are also going to be dropping support for MySQL 4 after WordPress 3.1. Fewer than 6 percent of WordPress users are running MySQL 4. The new required MySQL version for WordPress 3.2 will be 5.0.15.
