Normally, I would urge you to wait two to three months after release before upgrading any production systems or installing the new release of any software. It is a helpful, general rule of thumb that allows time for common issues and solutions to come to light through the experiences of the community at large and without the pain of hindering your production system. By the time this book goes to print, SugarCRM 6.0 will have been available for a few weeks and should be considered safe for use in production.

That, however, does not mean there are not any issues to consider.

The new user interface—exclusive to Professional and Enterprise Edition users, leverages a themes framework first introduced into SugarCRM upon the release of Version 5.5. Themes, as discussed in Chapter 4 of this book, allow you to manipulate the look and feel of SugarCRM in a number of ways, including color scheme and placement of menu options.

Many SugarCRM users find this capability quite helpful. This is because it allows them to select a manner of working with SugarCRM that is more in line with their general preferences for an interface or for that matter, color selections that help users with visual impairments interact more easily with the system.

SugarCRM 6.0, however, only includes a limited number of themes when compared to prior versions. Community Edition in particular only includes a single theme. In addition, custom themes that were not developed using the 5.5 themes framework will not function upon upgrading, regardless of which edition of SugarCRM you are using.

The earlier discussion highlights important issues that should be considered before upgrading or installing Version 6.0.

In short, the major advantage of Version 6.0 is the new interface, but it is a feature that is exclusive to Professional and Enterprise Edition users. Furthermore, older themes are not compatible with Version 6.0 (regardless of edition), and will not be accessible after an upgrade. New users are unlikely to be impacted, unless, of course, the classic theme is not to their liking.