I started using dolphin just over 2 years ago in October 2007 with version 5. I later upgraded to 6.0 and then 6.1, my site is currently on 6.1.6 and I also run a beta copy of 7 for testing. In my own experience upgrading has never been much of an issue, it has just been a matter of familiarizing myself with the database tables, moving what I needed and re-writing some of the template and system code including language keys, etc. I don't use many 3rd party mods and customizations to my site are see more minor as I want to keep it secure as possible and don't trust many of the mods out there unless I review and can somewhat understand the underlying code. I try to write my own changes / modifications to the base code where I can so if new versions come out I know where to alter.

The upgrade this time looks a bit more complicated than previous times where I did the process myself as the media format has changed significantly. It does however look like Boonex has made a priority of providing an upgrade migration module which will do most of the work (except for custom fields which can easily be moved with a few SQL statements).

I suppose I am one of those people in the middle, I won't jump on the upgrade bandwagon when RC comes out (at least not on my production site) and I probably won't upgrade when the final release comes out. I usually wait for a few iterations in fact when I upgraded from 5 to 6 it wasn't until the fifth version 6.0.5 was released that I upgraded. I will however keep a sandbox running with the latest versions so I can familiarize myself with the system and tweak any bugs / issues I see along the way. I am not a PHP programmer, however I do spend a significant amount of time trying to learn some of the code and structure of the system, my PHP skills have improved a little because of this however I am still a beginner.

Anyway, for me I am not too concerned if Dolphin 7 comes out this year or next because I really love the current version. Dolphin has brought a new lease of life to my site ever since version 5 and I will continue to use it as future versions are developed. I have never really been one to sit around and wait for a new software release, however I will continue to test and work with the betas as it is important to stay in tune with what is ahead. My site is really small, about 1500 members so my experiences may not translate well to others here who may have sites with many thousand members, however I just wanted to share my own thoughts on this topic.