“State of the Word” is a big thing for anyone who is involved with WordPress. This year’s “State of the Word” is even more important, following the release of WordPress 5.0 and the switch over to Gutenberg editor.
If an almost one hour talk is too much for you, then read through the Post Status summary of the talk with all the highlights and useful links.
I have a great deal of respect for Automattic in general and Matt Mullenweg in particular. They have done an amazing job with WordPress, which is now used by more than a quarter of all websites. But they are also a great example of how companies can work in the Open Source software space.
It’s not all just business. Automattic raises the ethics bar quite high. And today there is an excellent example of how they do it. Check out this blog post by Matt on why WordPress will be moving away from the React JavaScript framework developed by Facebook:
I think Facebook’s clause is actually clearer than many other approaches companies could take, and Facebook has been one of the better open source contributors out there. But we have a lot of problems to tackle, and convincing the world that Facebook’s patent clause is fine isn’t ours to take on. It’s their fight.
Respect!
WordPress in general, and Matt Mullenweg in particular have been pushing for JavaScript for a while now.
So, it’s not surprising that WordPress developers are chatting about the JavaScript framework that they’ll use for the WordPress core JavaScript needs.
The discussion is far from finalized right now, so it’s particularly interesting to see how it develops, both in IRC/Slack chatrooms and in Make WordPress p2 comments.
So far, there are two primary contenders – React and Vue. I have zero experience with either one (or pretty much with any JavaScript frameworks, trying to avoid JavaScript as much as I can), but I’m still interested in the reasoning that goes behind the choice, especially so, from the people who know so much in this domains.
The General Public License (GPL) has been the source of many discussions since it was created in 1989 (with a few versions in following years) and applied to numerous Open Source Software projects.
Currently, there is one more such discussion going on. It was kicked off by Matt Mullenweg, the founder and CEO of Automattic, the company behind WordPress:
Anyone who knows me knows that I like to try new things — phones, gadgets, apps. Last week I downloaded the new Wix (closed, proprietary, non-open-sourced, non-GPL) mobile app. I’m always interested to see how others tackle the challenge of building and editing websites from a mobile device.
I started playing around with the editor, and felt… déjà vu. It was familiar. Like I had used it before.
Turns out I had. Because it’s WordPress.
He proceeds with the open letter to Wix:
Dear Wix,
This explicitly contravenes the GPL, which requires attribution and a corresponding GPL license on whatever you release publicly built on top of GPL code. The GPL is what has allowed WordPress to flourish, and that let us create this code. Your app’s editor is built with stolen code, so your whole app is now in violation of the license.
What does Matt want Wix to do? Very simple:
Release your app under the GPL, and put the source code for your app up on GitHub so that we can all build on it, improve it, and learn from it.
Did Wix respond? Yes, they did. First, one of their lead engineers, Tal Kol, wrote this blog post. I think it’s quite sensible and boils down to a misunderstanding. Or so I read it:
I apologize if I appeared to take credit for somebody else’s work. This was definitely not my intention. I think you guys are doing a great job.
Second one though is a bit less so, written by Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami. While trying to appear friendly and casual, it does dodge the whole issue of the GPL violation, misrepresents the facts on the branding, and ends with an awkward invitation for a coffee. WP Garage has a good summary of why this response is weak.
Here are a few more resources with commentary that help to understand the issue:
Personally, I am a big fan of GPL, Automattic, WordPress and Matt Mullenweg, who I had the opportunity to meet and talk to back a few years ago. But as a CTO of a startup (and not for the first time), I have to admit that Open Source Software is difficult when it comes to business. It requires a huge effort to make a company understand what Open Source Software is, what are the intricacies of the major licenses, and what are the consequences of using Open Source Software for different kinds of projects (internal tools, client projects, company products and services, etc).
Here are the important points that I want to highlight in regards to this conversion:
I’d like to finish with this tweet, which I think highlights the most important point.
https://twitter.com/pt/status/792431953601449984
P.S.: Some people say that GPL has not been enforced in courts. This page lists a few cases in several countries, which provide examples of the contrary.
The Intrinsic Value of Blogging
Matt Mullenweg blogs on something I’ve been thinking about for a while too. My thoughts aren’t distilled yet, but this does resonate with me plenty. I think I have been writing either for the first or second person lately, not for both at the same time.
[…] write for only two people. First, write for yourself, both your present self whose thinking will be clarified by distilling an idea through writing and editing, and your future self who will be able to look back on these words and be reminded of the context in which they were written.
Second, write for a single person who you have in mind as the perfect person to read what you write, almost like a letter, even if they never will, or a person who you’re sure will read it because of a connection you have to them (hi Mom!).