Responsibilities of Shared Server Users and the Current State of PHP/Joomla

As of April 28, 2025, the latest version of PHP is 8.4.6. However, unfortunately, very few shared rental server services in Japan readily support this latest version. Our website's hosting provider, XServer Business, also currently offers PHP up to version 8.3.10.

The delay in supporting the latest version can be attributed to compatibility issues and the workload on server administrators. This situation is similar to users who continue to use older versions of Joomla (1.x to 3.x). In the PHP world as well, there are still cases where versions prior to PHP 8 are being used.

While I understand the desire to stick with older versions, this is only acceptable if the issues can be resolved under one's own responsibility. In many cases, this is not the situation. This might be similar to the psychology of users who insist on old iPhone mockups or specific iOS versions.

Of course, there might not be any problems when using a home server or a company server, but it's a different story in a shared rental server environment where many users are involved. Using old PHP versions increases security risks and can pose a threat to the entire server.

Some might argue, "That's the server administrator's problem." However, as users of a shared server, we have a responsibility to use the provided environment appropriately.

Software version updates are a fundamental aspect of security measures and should be considered a minimum obligation for shared server users. It is crucial to constantly stay informed about the latest information and not miss opportunities for version upgrades by diligently managing our sites daily.

Now, regarding Joomla, another CMS, the latest version is currently 5.3.0. The issue with the Plugin Language Filter, which was expected to be resolved in this update, still persists. Fortunately, however, this bug can be fixed independently.

While challenges remain in supporting the latest PHP version, in the case of Joomla, we can manage site operations without much inconvenience at present, even with some issues that require self-correction.