Develop on the lastest and greatest or stick with the well documented version?

Question

Should I develop on the latest and greatest 1.7 version of Joomla or stick with the well documented version of 1.5?

I'm new to Joomla (and webDev in general), so I bumble around, search online, and ask those wiser then myself. The problem is that the answers are for version 1.5, and don't apply to 1.7, so I'm floundering.

Usually I'd go with using the latest and greatest.

• It should be supported longer
• It should have bug fixes
• New awesome things will be developed won't be backwards compatible
• The extensions and components for the old version won't be maintained

But I need to crank this site out in a month. And if I'm fighting bad or lacking documentation, it's going to be an uphill battle.

So, stick with the latest and greatest or go install what all the tutorials, guides, and videos are geared towards?