Open Y Upgraded to Drupal 11.1: Smoothest Major Version Yet, Says IT Care CEO

Andrii Podanenko, CEO and IT Architect at IT Care LLC, announced a preview upgrade of the YMCA Website Services distribution, Open Y, from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11.1. The update, shared on LinkedIn, is not a public release, but an early look ("a spoiler") ahead of the future beta and stable versions.

Open Y is an open-source Drupal-based distribution tailored for YMCAs and other non-profits to build and manage their digital platforms. It includes nearly 500 contributed and custom modules, making version upgrades potentially complex.

Andrii noted that while the upgrade wasn't effortless, it was the smoothest major version transition he has experienced. He credited this to the Drupal community, particularly core and contributed module maintainers, for providing a stable and predictable upgrade path from Drupal 10 to 11.

The successful upgrade also reinforced a principle for his team at IT Care LLC: to apply updates to their internal projects first before releasing them to clients or the public. He added that this "use what you build" approach has proven effective in maintaining quality.

The alpha version of the upgraded Open Y distribution is now available on GitHub: https://github.com/YCloudYUSA/yusaopeny/releases/tag/11.1.0.0-alpha1

Gábor Hojtsy, a key figure in the Drupal community, also reposted the update on LinkedIn, quoting Podanenko's remark:

"I can't say it was effortless, but it was by far the smoothest major version upgrade I have ever experienced."

Further updates are expected when the beta and stable versions of the distribution are released for broader use by the YMCA community and other non-profits.