I am a professional web-designer and I have hosted hundreds of sites with joomla 1.5/1.6/1.7/2.5. I have found Joomla 1.5 is more easier and comfortable to use than 1.7 and 2.5. Modules/extensions and plugins of joomla 1.5 are easily available and most of them are free. There are thousands of 1.5 templates to choose from and most of them are free. Joomla 1.7 and 2.5 are almost same, there is no big difference! This is my opinion about joomla 1.5/1.6/1.7/2.5. What are your opinions?
I totally agree bro. I am still using Joomla version 1.5.23 and nothing isn't getting me to change in a hurry. To me its just the best version. I have using version 1.7 once and it sucks in comparison (in my opinion).
People said the same when Joomla 1.5 was released. Joomla 1.6+ is a new system that looks pretty much the same and has some issues that need ironing out. The longer you stay behind the curve the harder migrating to a new version of Joomla will be. I fully understand you not rushing to migrate, but be aware that your sites level of security will diminish the longer you stay on 1.5. Staying on the old version has its merits, our main site was originally a Mambo site that was migrated to Joomla 1.0.2 then back to Mambo and the back to Joomla 1.0.10 ( I think ) and then on to Joomla 1.5 where it still is (1.5.25). Our site will not migrate properly because of this and therefore we need to build a new one. I'm in no rush to do this because we are busy, as soon as we have a quite spell we will build a new site for one main reason, Joomla 1.5 will become easily hackable where having a clean backup is only a temporary fix until it gets hacked again. If your site is low key and does not stand out, you will probably fly below the radar and suffer no issues but if you have a high traffic site or a prestigious website, you need to have good security, Joomla 1.5 will become cannon fodder for hackers. Staying on 1.5 is a valid option but you should know the issues that can arise, and no I'm not scaremongering, I see it all too often.
I updated all my Joomla website to joomla 2.5. "Modules/extensions and plugins of joomla1.5 are easily available and most of them are free" I think because Joomla 1.5 lasts a long time. Joomla 2.5 get many new features that I love such as auto upgrade, smart search, access level... You also can find many joomla 2.5 templates now. From Joomla 1.7 the SEO function is getting better. You can easily find extensions for Joomla 1.5 but I see that almost of the providers forgot to take care of their products and it's difficult for you to solve the problem.
I vote for Joomla 2.5 From Mambo, Joomla 1.0 , joomla 1.5, joomla 1.6, joomla 1.7 and joomla 1.8 (2.5) Joomla 2.5 extensions will have aton in near furtures