I happened to stop by phpmyadmin.net and I noticed that 2.8.0 was released today. They haven't put a note up about it yet, so Digital Point gets the scoop! They released rc2 on the 2nd, but 2.8 is tagged as stable in the files area and rc2 doesn't look to be available anymore from what I can tell at least.
I just setup the new PHPMyAdmin. I don't really see the difference. However, i'm new to MySQL and PHP, so I may not notice small changes. I did not like that the font was like HUGE. I'm glad I found the PHPMyAdmin Themes. I like small font and a clean look. I think that PHPMyAdmin can definetly be designed better, as far as layout. CFMyAdmin, I program Coldfusion so I wanted to stay loyal to Coldfusion. Now thats a waste of server space. CFMyAdmin is definetly not a userfriendly Tool. They encrypted the source code so no one can improve on the idea, then stopped further development.
The source code is not a problem. It has problems with MySQL 5.0.x and really needs a lot of work. If you want it....
Do not remember the version but the more phpMydmin adds "cosmetic" features (skins, etc.) the worst performance. I simply hate that framed page when you export your data. Certainly it was always displayed in frames but in newer version the window does not fit your browser window and that is annoying when you only need to get the date as copy and paste, not to mention the continuos errors caused by char set incompatibility between your localhost version and your hosting service version.
I usually don't join forums to post something to a thread of interest. However, I am so disappointed in the style of phpmyadmin themes, that I just had to join in on this conversation. I CAN'T STAND THE HUGE FONTS OR THE SMALL FONTS. I've got all 4 themes installed and they all look junky. Why did they mess around with phpMyAdmin 2.6's theme now, in version 2.8 to make it look like a mess. It's hard for me to concentrate when I use it. I love the functionality and I've used phpMyAdmin for many years now. However, I've just gotta vent on this one. I don't mean to complain, I just want to reiterate what the people above have mentioned. Hopefully more phpMyAdmin users will stand up and then the developers will take note and give more attention to style. I frankly don't get it. In the world of music, all the music production software is very sharp looking. In the art world, things look great. Mac's and Windows modern operating systems look clean. I hope that programmers will take the time to make their software look good. Don't we know that a book is judged by its cover in this day and age? So, why not work on the cover at least as much as what goes on under the hood...