Joomla 2.5 RC 1 is available now. It’s the latest release of Joomla yet, but it is meant for testing purposes only and it is not recommended for live Joomla sites. As for a security release of the Joomla CMS, it is expected on the 24th of January 2012.
We are sharing the news about the availability of Joomla 2.5 RC 1 so that users could test it and report all bugs to developers who will get the bugs fixed before the security release is launched. Also, once you download Joomla 2.5 RC 1 you can see what it’s like to upgrade your sites from Joomla 1.7 to Joomla 2.5.0.
Enjoy testing the latest version of Joomla because Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 1.7 will not be supported in a few months, and the sooner you learn how to use Joomla 2.5.0 the better 