There has been a lot of anticipation building for WordPress 2.4, which has been in the works for awhile now.  There are going to be several positive changes, but one that has gotten some mixed reviews are the planned changes to the look of the WordPress dashboard.

Though we don’t have a release candidate ready to view yet, Hyper123.net has posted a live preview of the WordPress 2.4 dashboard.   Not every feature included functions properly, but it will give you an idea of what we can expect in WordPress 2.4.

Here is a screenshot of the WordPress 2.4 dashboard:

You can also check out this video walkthrough on Tubetorial.

What do you think about this early look at the change?

[via Weblog Tools Collection]

Now that 2008 is here, why not look back at 2007?  Some blogs have been looking back over 2007, and I’ve been closely tracking some of the WordPress reviews for 2007.    One post that caught my eye was published over at WP Themes Plugin, where they have picked there Top 20 WordPress Themes of 2007.

In looking over the post, it is a pretty good collection of themes, most of which (if not all) are completely free to WordPress users.  If you are looking for a WordPress theme for your new blog, I recommend you check it out.   If you don’t find what you are looking for there, you may also want to dig through my various WordPress Theme Galleries to find the right theme for your needs.   I haven’t counted, but I believe there is well over 100 free and premium themes included in the galleries, which are broken down into categories for easy browsing and include screen shots and links to each theme.

I hope everyone has a happy 2008!

As we welcome 2008, this blog celebrates the completion of its third month of existence. So far, this blog has exceeded my expectations. It’s getting a good amount of traffic, and the subscriber count is quickly approaching 300 subscribers.

In case your weren’t here for last month’s popular posts or October’s popular posts, I like to wrap up each month with a quick post covering the most popular posts for that month. Here is some of December’s most popular stuff:

• Premium WordPress Themes Gallery
• Promote Firefox with the Get Firefox Banner Plugin
• 10 WordPress Plugins Every Blog Should Use
• WordPress Tip:  Use an Optimal Permalink Structure
• WordPress Tip: Use the WordPress Post Slug

Thanks to everyone for supporting Hack WordPress through reading, comments, and inbound links. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank this months sponsors! 

• PremiumPress - Magnus is a freelance web designer with a couple premium WordPress themes for sale.
• Adii - Adii is the WordPress rockstar responsible for the Premium News theme. 

If you have WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, or other WordPress related products and services that you’d like to promote, we still have two advertising spots available.  Please check out our advertising page, then contact us. 

Also, if you enjoy writing about WordPress, we now have a couple writing positions available. Check out this page for more details!