We’ve just released the first beta of the Aegir 0.2 release over at the Aegir group on groups.drupal.org. This is a pretty special release for us, as we’ve been making good on our goal to keep the development cycle as short as possible, and our focus is paying off.

The reason we’ve been able to accomplish as much as we have is the amazing synergy we’ve fostered with the Drush project during this time and the help we’ve received from many developers in the Aegir community, which has contributed to rapid maturing of Aegir as a product.

Some of the highlights are

• The beautiful new Eldir theme. Designed by Young, it provides a clean interface that builds on the functionality that Aegir provides. For more, check out Young’s post Aegir Gets a Fresh Coat of Paint from last week.
• The introduction of the concept of “Optional Dependencies”. This allows us to provide optimal configuration for modules that will improve the operation of your site but aren’t required for normal usage. The first of these added are Admin Menu and the use of the Eldir theme, but there may be more in the future.
• Numerous fixed security and usability issues. This was done with the help of the growing community of users, developers, and testers. More people have been getting involved in the project than ever before and because of their input we’ve had tighter feedback loops, which have resulted in a better product all around. Great work everyone!

You can find out more about the release by reading the release announcement, which also includes help on installing new and upgrading existing Aegir installations.

In the project, there has been a growing interest in supporting Drupal 6 as the hosting front end. We’ve decided that the best approach will be to release a stable and well tested Aegir 0.2 release for Drupal 5, and on completion branch the front end and do a port to Drupal 6 before any work on the 0.3 development cycle commences.

We estimate that this development phase will take about two weeks, and work is already underway in the community. By taking this approach, we can provide a Drupal 6 release much sooner, and when work on the 0.3 release starts, we will be building on the solid base of the Drupal 6 port.

If you are interested in contributing or learning more about Aegir, please join the Aegir group on groups.drupal.org. You can also chat with us on the #aegir channel on the freenode irc network.