The last week we had a discussion among the developers if we should set the minimal system requirements for Joomla! 1.5 to PHP 4.3. Currently we have them set on PHP 4.1. From a technical perspective we would like to raise to PHP 4.3 for a multitude of reasons. To name a few :

    - Security concerns
    - Default support for xml through the DOM XML extension
    - Most AJAX libraries require PHP 4.3
    - The mutlibyte character library 'mbstring' is mature on 4.3
    - Streams support, needed in if we want to support SSL streams

PHP 4.3 was a major release that got alot of important new features and it seems most webhosters have PHP 4.3.10 or 4.4 installed.

We do want to hear your opinion first before making any decisions. Let us know what PHP version u are using ?

I use 5 on my localhost , 4.4.1 on the web server .

Jinx wrote:

PHP 4.3 was a major release that got alot of important new features and it seems most webhosters have PHP 4.3.10 or 4.4 installed.

That's quite true , so I see you go and support this version rather than 4.1

Regards Mohammed

4.4.1-pl1 locally and 4.4.2 production.

Ian

4.4.1 -  on live host
4.4.0 -  on local

Forgive my wrong vote for PHP < 4.3 .. =blame it on hubby emergency distraction.

I have several Joomla's installed usind 4.3.4, 4.4.1 and 4.4.2. All on different shared hosting accounts..

I am using php 4.3.11 on several of my livesite.
On the production site i am using php 5.1.1 (XAMPP) 

[EDit: did not see the Announcement]
We could also ask the partners to make such a poll on their respective local community sites.
My 2 cents.

Hi Jinx,

Just checked a series of the most used hosts by the danish Joomla! users:

Danhost.dk: PHP 4.4.2 / DB: 4.0.26 Safe mode = off
CBOX.dk: PHP 4.3.10-16 / DB: 4.0.24 Safe mode = off
Surftown.dk: PHP 4.4.2 / DB 4.0.26 Safe mode = On
Servage.net: PHP 4.4.2 / DB: 4.0.26 (free choise of PHP/DB=5) Safe mode = manually On/off
i123.dk: PHP 4.3.8 / DB: 3.23.58 Safe mode = off

All above running latest J1.0.8

4.3.10 on localhost and 4.4.2 on my site

Hi,

Sorry, but I pressed the wrong button 
Pressed <4.3  I have 4.4.1



/Chrille

4.4.1

4.4.2 and 5.1.2 on customer servers

4.4.2

J-M, I think your idea is good, so it has been applied: http://forum.joomlafacile.com/showthread.php?t=8511
I've set a limit to a day before this one closes, so results will be known. Hope this helps a bit..

ot2sen wrote:Hi Jinx,

Just checked a series of the most used hosts by the danish Joomla! users:

Danhost.dk: PHP 4.4.2 / DB: 4.0.26 Safe mode = off
CBOX.dk: PHP 4.3.10-16 / DB: 4.0.24 Safe mode = off
Surftown.dk: PHP 4.4.2 / DB 4.0.26 Safe mode = On
Servage.net: PHP 4.4.2 / DB: 4.0.26 (free choise of PHP/DB=5) Safe mode = manually On/off
i123.dk: PHP 4.3.8 / DB: 3.23.58 Safe mode = off

All above running latest J1.0.8

hi all
In addition to above list I have two sites hosted at

Needhost.dk: PHP 4.3.11 / DB: 4.1.12 Safe mode = Off
UnoEuro.com: PHP 4.3.10 / DB: 4.0.18 Safe mode = On

both sites running Joomla 1.0.8

I don't know anyone running < 4.3. 

I have PHP 4.4.2 on all of my two hosts.

Some other hosts:

ProInet (Swedish. < 1000 customers): PHP 4.4.2 / Safe mode = off
Surftown (Danish, European. > 150.000 customers): PHP 4.4.2 / Safe mode = on
Loopia (Swedish):  PHP 4.4-series / Safe mode = off
B-One (Danish, European. > 200.000 customers in 149 countries): PHP 4.4.1 and PHP 5.1.1 / Safe mode = on

All in all, it seems like most of the commercial hosts are running > 4.3. In my opinion it would be a shame not add the possibilities of extra features because of what seems to be a small minority of 4.1 users. And if you are running it on your own dedicated server, wouldn't you be prepared to update your PHP when your making the switch from the J! 1.0.X series to J! 1.5? Or am I just an ignorant fool blurting that out?

4.3.11 on two production sites, 5.1.2 on localhost. Personally wouldn't mind seeing the minimum PHP version going to 4.3.x.

I'm maintaining two installations on 4.3.11 and working on the offline versions on 5.x

SwedeNet.net hosting is using PHP 4.4.1

Use 5 on my localhost (but sometimes switch to 4.4.0 ---using XAMPP) , 4.4.2 on most of my web server .

All hosters I know of use 4.3 at least. Most are planing on updating to either 4.4 or 5.x in the next months.

The others probably went out of business, pledged by hackers... 

I think that unless the few ones that clicked "<4.3" in the poll also post good reasons here, we can safely make >= 4.3.x as a prerequisite.

sikumbang wrote:Use 5 on my localhost (but sometimes switch to 4.4.0 ---using XAMPP) , 4.4.2 on most of my web server .

me too, 5 if i use xampp as my localhost (i was use phptriad with php 4.2.2), and using 4.4.2 on my web server

@Jinx:
We set up a simple form for the danish users at joomla.dk, and output can be seen here:
http://joomla.dk/svarfraundersgelse/ (result updates automatic on new submission)

Excellent work and great community collaboration !

I have cut this from my system info:

"Apache/1.3.34 (Unix) PHP/4.4.2 mod_ssl/2.8.25 OpenSSL/0.9.7e"

/Florre

Hi
Local>5.0.3
4.3.11
4.4.1
//Mia

Here are the top PHP versions for users of BSQ Sitestats that I've collected via a Phone Home feature that I have:

4.4.2  71
4.3.11 56
4.4.1 55
4.3.10 52
4.4.0 20
5.1.2 12
5.0.5 12
5.0.4 11
4.3.2 11
4.3.4 10
5.1.1 9
4.3.9 5

Why are most hosts running 5> I mean aint that a future of PHP most host seem to still be running php 4>

PHP5 seems to be stable to me .. it just runs.

Because php5 breaks some older php scripts that people use on their sites

Louis