jQuery 2.0 Has Just Been Released – Smaller, Faster and Better Than Ever

Yes, that’s right folks. jQuery 2.0 was released earlier today and the new version is now smaller, faster and better than ever.

What changes have been made? Well, for a start, jQuery 2.0 no longer supports older versions of Internet Explorer (versions 6, 7 and 8). Plus, if you are running the newer versions such as IE 9 or 10 in Compatibility Mode, you may experience issues with jQuery 2.0.

Now that jQuery has decided to bid adieu to patches for old IE versions, the final product is much smaller than the previous version — as much as 19% smaller compared to version 1.0. Also, the jQuery team has plans for targeting older Android and WebKit browsers to further improve size and performance.

jQuery 1.8 had introduced custom builds for smaller files and version 2.0 has further refined and improved this feature. You can now exclude combinations of 12 different modules to create a custom version that is even smaller. And, jQuery 2.0 is now API-compatible with 1.9.

Future plans for jQuery include the release of a patch version 1.10 in the coming few months to accommodate bug fixes and transition/migration issues. Also, just in case you are worrying about older versions of IE and intend to stick with jQuery 1.x for some more time before migrating: the jQuery team has opted to support versions 1.x for websites that need it.

Due to all of the changes, jQuery recommend that use the jQuery Migrate plugin and read the jQuery 1.9 Upgrade Guide if you are upgrading from any version pre 1.9.

jQuery 2.0 will be available soon on the Google and Microsoft CDNs, in the meantime you can grab the unminified testing version here and the minified production version here.