thanks for the recent updates!
VirtualMin's new Install Scripts listing for Drupal shows 2 available releases:
"6.3 (latest)" and
"5.8 (stable)"
unfortunately, while the 6.3 release is indeed current, and only a few days old, version 5.9 was released as an update to 5.8 on the same day 6.3 came out (they were jointly announced)
5.9 fixes known vulns in the 5.8 release.
I am not sure that "latest" and "stable" are entirely correct either:
though the 5.x product branch continues to be maintained at present,
per http://drupal.org/handbook/version-info:
"The current stable release is Drupal 6.[x]"
per http://drupal.org/node/65922
"Only the current stable release series and the previous release series (e.g., 6.x and 5.x) are supported by the Drupal development community at any given time."
-- and in Drupal's main Project download area, the "latest" category is taken by Drupal 7.x-dev, an early development branch.
based on my personal Drupal experience (since 2004) and having checked on the official Drupal IRC channels:
currently there are a number of third-party contrib modules for Drupal 5.x that have not yet been ported to Drupal 6.x -- but if a new Drupal site doesn't need any of these, the newer series is probably preferred. its menu system is significantly more efficient; its Custom Content Construction Kit and incredibly flexible new Views architecture is expected to offer a smoother migration path for rich content to Drupal 7.x, with fewer third-party dependencies, than content developed around the older 5.x legacy infrastructure; and it clearly offers the longest lifespan before an eventual End Of Life support termination.
both 5.9 and 6.3 require PHP 5.2.0+, incidentally, as does 7.x.
best,
Adrian
Adrian Russell-Falla