Beginning May 8th, HostGator will begin upgrading from PHP4 to PHP5 and Mysql 4.1 to Mysql 5.0. Users are not required to do anything as the update will occur automatically unless you choose to opt out from the update.
Full text here:
As technology continues to advance and evolve, HostGator has always aimed to stay at the forefront of the technological curve. Following this trend to provide the most up-to-date hardware and software, we are proceeding with making PHP5 part of the standard working environment on all of our servers, as well as upgrading MySQL from version 4.1 to 5.0.
These upgrades will be on all new servers launched from this point forward. As of March 8th , 2008, we will begin converting current production servers to this new environment as well. We are aware that differences in PHP4 and PHP5 can lead to minor problems and instabilities in certain scripts, and are taking every measure possible to ensure your websites continue to function. This includes testing scripts that may conflict with the upgrade and automatically upgrading your code to a problem-free, stable and PHP5 compatible version. The MySQL upgrade may have minor issues as well, which will be handled in a similar manner.
This upgrade process is going to be as automated as possible, but we understand that some customers may wish to handle upgrades themselves. All servers and accounts will be upgraded to PHP5 and MySQL 5, but if you wish to handle the upgrading of any incompatible scripts yourself, please visit ( http://www.hostgator.com/php5opt-out/). By authenticating your login credentials on this page, you confirm that you wish leave any incompatible common scripts as they are.
With that said, only a very small percentage of customers will be affected by this, as nearly all PHP scripts have been upgraded to comply with the PHP5 standards over the past few years. MySQL 5 has also been proven stable and the upgrade will be as streamlined as possible. Of those customers still concerned or looking for more information, please read this forum post ( http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?p=101443 ) regarding the upgrade process. Any news or progress updates will be posted there.