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Just looking around moodle-land today and it only takes a couple minutes to see that Moodle 2 is still a disaster and is as unpopular as ever. With summer coming up, and many organizations facing the decision “to upgrade or not to upgrade, to Moodle 2″ I think the answer is clear–Upgrading to Moodle 2 could be the worst decision you make all year.

Of course, a decision about upgrading is really the easy decision…if you are considering a new implementation of Moodle, you may think the logical thing to do is start with Moodle 2, but that could also be a very bad decision–Moodle 2 is beta (at best) and if you install it, get ready for a lot of confused and unhappy faculty (and students). However, going with 1.9 isn’t much better unless you plan to stay with that version for several years–if you install 1.9 this summer, spend the year getting your faculty accustomed to using it, and then decide to move to Moodle 2 next year (maybe it’ll be out of beta by then), then you will essentially be going through a major LMS transition at that time…not good.

So, if you are thinking of starting new with Moodle this year, you really have no good decision–Moodle 2 will be disastrous and Moodle 1.9 ensures you will need to take your institution through a major move, when and if, Moodle 2 ever becomes usable in a production environment.

I’ll leave you with a couple of real-world thoughts from the moodle.org forums today, but if you think moving from your current LMS to Moodle is going to save you anything, you are in for a real surprise!

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As much as I want to like version 2, I would upgrade to 1.9.  I have two sites using 1.9 and one brand new installation (no upgrade) with 2.0.2.  The 1.9 sites are easy to manage, no problems, stable and fast (about 50 active users, over 100 enrolled, and 30 courses in each).  The 2.0.2 site has approximately 12 active users, about 100 who are enrolled and 6 courses.

My biggest complaint is that 2.0.2 is ridiculously slow – it takes more than twice as long as 1.9 to login and open just about anything. It is so slow that if more than 3 people are logged in and actively working at the same time, the server will regularly time out. This is not my server – I’m on a hosting plan, so I don’t have an option to go and tweak everything for optimum performance (nor do I have the expertise) as is advised on some of the forums in here.

The new file repository system in 2.0, while in theory nice and useful (and admittedly more secure), makes course creation problematic if you ever find yourself wanting to update a PDF or image – you can’t just FTP and copy over the old version. As far as I can tell, the only option is to log into Moodle, open the class, open the link and re-upload the file (either from your local computer or from a repository). Then take it on faith that in 4 days, the old file will magically delete itself. Again, a time waster.

I love many things about 2.0.2, but I sincerely wish I had never decided to create a new site using this version. So far, the benefits are far outweighed by the problems with responsiveness. So, my advice would be to upgrade to 1.9 and then wait at least a year until 2.0 has matured before moving on.

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=174340#p764440

and, more on the disastrous moodle 2 file system…

Yes, but you are not mentioning the fact that doing so will result in two copies of that file: One in your Private Files; one attached to the resource.

At first, I was pretty stoked about the “Private Files” business, because I assumed that meant that I’d be able to just keep everything there, and files that I use in multiple courses could be replaced there and then they’d be ready to go throughout all my courses.

But no.

I upload them there, then I go to the resource in a course, choose from Private Files, and it is then attached to that resource. So far so good. But then a new semester begins, and I update some file I give to every class, and I upload the new version with the same name to Private Files and check my classes.

Nope, they are still using the old version, which has evidently been copied to god knows where, in every single class. In order to update them, I get to go into each resource and pick the file from Private Files again, leading me to question what the point of Private Files even is, since I might as well just upload everything separately to each resource anyway, and save some server space.

The Files system in 1.9 was fairly frustrating because each class had its own files and I had to upload a handout, etc. to each class instead of just putting it in some central location and updating it once. The new file system was touted as a way around that problem, but as far as I can tell, it’s worse in every way imaginable. Now, not only can I not use a single file in multiple courses, I also can’t even update the files in a course without clicking on every single resource and updating them individually. I simply cannot figure out how this is better.

I understand your point about attaching images, etc. to Word files and emails, but… this is not a Word file or an email. It’s a web page. It was designed to replace Word files and emails and provide a simpler, more streamlined way of delivering content to students. I don’t understand why I would want to replicate the behavior of older technology on the technology that supercedes it. It’s like replacing a steering wheel with a set of reins. That interface is no longer relevant and is now confusing.

I realize I’m letting my dogs off the leash here a bit, but I just cannot figure out how this is better than the 1.x system in any way that teachers actually care about (permissions, etc.). It’s solving a problem that most users didn’t have. I can see corporate users needing to be careful about permissions and licenses, but that is not the bulk of Moodle’s user base. This really should have been a separate add-on or something.

Luckily for me, most of the users at my university are new to Moodle, and therefore won’t know to complain about this to me, but I’m sitting here with a bunch of old personal classes that I used to administer quickly and without fuss, which I now have to click away at every semester for hours.

I hope you guys will at least get the linking to Private Files set up. Without that, I’m going to be in tears twice a year, and I guarantee I’m not alone.

Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=160067#p764636