1.4 is reliable enough for the Wikimedia sites to use it, although those sites are patched more often than the official releases and use the software in a predictable configuration.
Using the 1.4 beta would involve monitoring for updates more often due to the faster release cycle, and being prepared to do small database schema changes as needed by any remaining fixes for performance and bugs. If you have been changing php files, you will need to merge them.
As far as reliablility goes, 1.4 fixes many bugs that will remain in 1.3, which only gets security fixes. MW 1.4 has probably had more testing with PHP v5. than MW 1.3.
BTW, the latest 1.3 version is 1.3.10. 1.3 releases also need to be monitored and there is a low traffic mailing list called mediawiki-announce to make that easier.
For upgrade instructions, see the file in the releases called UPGRADE. The upgrade risk can be reduced by first trying it with a test copy from a backup. And by doing a backup before the actual upgrade. As well as backing-up the database, make a copy of the PHP files. LocalSettings.php is where configuration changes are usually done, but sometimes people make hacks elsewhere.
-- Zigger
On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 17:34:10 -0500, Taneem A T wrote:
... From what I can tell MW 1.4 is in beta for now - do you recommend I hold off on upgrading to it? I need the wiki to work reliably, even if this means it looks a little less pretty for now.
My second question is, if I DO upgrade to MW 1.4 from 1.3, could someone give me a link to the upgrade instructions page? I looked for it, but apparently I'm blind... ...