Magento version 1.8 beta is here

Important: This is an alpha release (a first version). Deploy this release only in a development or test environment. Do not deploy this version in production!

Major improvements in Magento 1.8

• Thorough review of load calculation formulas, correction of rounding errors, and additional help with Configuration;
• Optimized cache adapters for single server systems;
• Fixed many types of database deadlocks;
• fixes in the API and various security fixes.

Magento 1.8 performance improvements

• Way Magento performs large database searches;
• Checkout performance improvements achieved through smarter handling of country settings when sending a new order confirmation email, among other things;
• No more unnecessary RSS cache cleanups;
• Improve overall checkout process performance by loading progress data for only the current Checkout step.

Magento 1.8 Security Improvements

• safer handling of passwords;
• Better protection against cross site scripting (xss).