The latest public release of WordPress has landed; version 2.2, and it is good. At the top of the new features list (trac list here) is the native incorporation of the insanely popular WordPress widgets plug-in from Automattic; they're built right in now, which should help spread the word for theme authors everywhere to start adding the tiny snippet of code - if they haven't already - to enable the wonders of widgets in their themes.

But handy widgets aren't the only big news here. WordPress 2.2 also brings features like full atom support (of the 1.0 spec), a new Blogger importer that supports the latest version that recently came out of beta, an 'infinite comment stream' that uses AJAX to reload a new set of comments anytime you delete or set some as spam, new protection from enabling a plugin or file (using the built-in editor) that could break the blog, as well as core plugin and filter optimizations that "should make everything feel a bit more snappy and lighter on your server." Also on the list for Safari users in the crowd is support for an upcoming Safari release that will enable WYSIWYG editing (which Mac users might be able to take advantage of now if they download a WebKit nightly edition, the open source build of the core of Safari).

Digging into this new release already, Aaron Brazell - a WordPress evangelist - has published 10 Things You Should Know About WordPress 2.2, an elaboration of the new features that should be of interest to most WordPress users. Austin Matzko, on the other hand, published WordPress 2.2: Three Things Developers Will Like - you get three guesses as to who that one's for.

This looks like a great update to what is possibly the most popular self-installable blogging/CMS platform available. However, unless you know what you're doing with code or built your own theme, we recommend checking in on news from your vital plugin and theme authors to be sure this new version won't break anything on your site.