The Inquisitr » Open source

A Very Wordpress World

Kyle Brady — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:05:52 +0000

Since 2003, an open source, Internet-oriented software package has done what is exceedingly rare within that community: becoming not only immensely popular and wildly loved, but also profitable. Matt Mullenweg has managed to turn what began as a fork of an aging content management system (CMS) into a worldwide empire that doesn’t even technically have a central office – Automattic’s Wordpress.

And there’s more coming.

Wordpress has evolved into one of the leading CMS packages in the world, in large part thanks to its many features and intense focus. Over the years it’s morphed from a rough-around-the-edges, but useful, software tool into a fully featured and easy-to-use content management endpoint with de facto deployment status. With built-in features like automatic upgrade, an increasingly intelligent editing interface, and an extensive plugin system, it’s easy to see why, and viewing the list of features in the upcoming 2.9 release is evidence enough that they’re moving toward a singular goal, given their prior history.

One of the complaints with Wordpress has always been relatively simple: while it’s easier to use than Drupal or Joomla for non-programmers, a basic familiarity with programming and advanced “Internet skills” are necessary to establish an enjoyable and highly functional site/blog. Themes use direct PHP references, plugins (until recently) had to be uploaded via FTP, and content was typically written externally – none of these facets of software lend themselves to attracting the proverbial Grandma as a user. Yes, the interface is more slick and friendly than their competitors’, but the Wordpress team still has far to go.

Wordpress 2.9 will supposedly see public access to easier rich-media embedding, inline image editing, and an operating system-like Trashcan – these are the most standout features of the impending upgrade, and they are definitively GUI- and Grandma-oriented. For some time now, Automattic has been playing both sides of the coin by enhancing the software backend and functionality while simultaneously smoothing over the user experience for the world-at-large, and this is admirable. It is, therefore, not a significant stretch to assume that Wordpress is intended to one day have rich functionality and extensibility, but with an interface that caters to the general public – the Gmail, Facebook, or Firefox of CMS packages.

There is, however, a problem.

Unless a user chooses the watered-down, hosted version, a site/blog using Wordpress in any fashion still requires significant setup and configuration – hosting, databases, and the initial software setup are all required elements to achieving functionality, and they all require some technological knowledge. Even worse are those sites that use Wordpress and begin to see traffic, because there is still a significant memory/load issue at its very core. The Inquisitr uses Wordpress, and I’ve always used it for my own site, business, and clients, but it is almost always heavily modified for any popular or load-bearing use.

All of us use some sort of content caching option, but a step further is still required: in my case, all sites are hosted with MediaTemple’s (gridserver) plan, with extra database-only memory resources, but in the case of the Inquisitr, an extensive hosting solution, involving Amazon’s AWS products, was necessary for the site to remain functional. How is this still a problem for Wordpress installations?

For Wordpress to achieve its high-minded goals, it needs to begin work on the core immediately. Given that Automattic has been slowly acquiring plugins and other software that advances its ideals, it would make more sense for Wordpress to come prepackaged with certain features, not as plugins, in order to enhance its basic usability – page caching should be first on the list.

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic, and Wordpress, I salute you. You’ve done an admirable job and the world generally loves you – but it’s time to step up to what you’ve created, and do things right.

You don’t want to become the Microsoft of content management systems, do you?

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction. He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

Microsoft kills Works in favor of ad-supported Office, OpenOffice and Google Docs still free

Kim LaCapria — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:03:05 +0000

Microsoft is finally putting useless and cumbersome Microsoft Works out of its misery. In other news, Microsoft was still making Microsoft Works.

In lieu of a frustrating and pointless version of Works, PC users can look forward to a stripped-down and ad-supported Office Starter 2010. The suite will include Word and Excel, dropping PowerPoint and OneNote for users who haven’t upgraded to the pay version. All the necessary bits for Home & Student, Home & Business or Professional versions will be installed with Office Starter, and can be unlocked with the purchase of a “key” or an activation card in electronics stores.

Takeshi Numoto, corporate VP for Office, declined to disclose whether Office Starter users would receive pricing incentives to shell out for pay versions of the software. Numoto feels that the new purchase options will reach new users who may have never been in front of a computer used Microsoft Office:

“This is a way for us to reach a lot of customers that we haven’t reached before,” Numoto said, explaining Microsoft’s strategy behind Office Starter, Click-To-Run and the new card-based licenses to be sold at retail. “This will get people a taste for Office, people who may not have been exposed to Office before.”

Scanning over the quotes from Microsoft execs just makes highlights the fact that so much functionality is available in open source versions of similar software. Google Docs and OpenOffice have some limitations-mainly when working with someone using MS Office-but deliberate reduced functionality and high cost aren’t among them. Aside from necessary collaboration with Office users, do you have any compelling reasons to keep paying for it?

Microsoft once more taps Open Source

Steven Hodson — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:31:36 +0000

Microsoft, the company that people love to hate just because it’s Microsoft, is often slammed because of its perceived closed and proprietary nature when it comes to its software. Even when they announced that they would be including support for Javascript in Visual Studio, their developer platform, not much was made of the news. The thing is that this inclusion of Javascript was only a part of a growing movement inside of the company to release code and software under their variation of the GPL license.

With the company’s move into the world of cloud computing with their Azure platform Microsoft has been adding additional support for other typically free development languages. In conjunction with their TechEd 2009 conference happening in Los Angeles TechEd India took the wraps off of the newest addition to 3rd party development languages.

At the TechEd show in India Microsoft removed the wraps off of a new software development kit (SDK) for those interested in developing PHP application for the Azure cloud platform. Additionally they let the world know that they are doing the same thing with development of an SDK for Java. Mary Jo Foley has the full scoop of the news on her blog

The PHP SDK for Windows Azure, known as PHPAzure, is an open source project, available for download from Microsoft CodePlex. The SDK “provides consistent programming model for Windows Azure Storage (Blobs, Tables & Queues), according to the CodePlex site.

On Microsoft’s Port 25 blog, Open Source Community Program Manager Peter Galli said Microsoft also is annoucing “the launch of a series of projects that offer samples and a toolkit that enable PHP developers to include Silverlight controls, Microsoft Virtual Earth maps and IE Webslices and Accelerators in PHP web applications; as well as automatically generated a simple “Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD)” PHP application from a table in SQL Server.”

As cool as this might be I am sure that the Microsoft haters out there will be coming out of the woodwork waving their Open Source flags and saying how bad this is for their movement.

Inside Google’s Open Source Browser

JR — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:47:15 +0000

We’re gaining some new insight into Google’s browser project from an unlikely source: a comic book.

The folks over at Google Blogoscoped say they received the book in the mail from Google. While it certainly seems like an unusual thing for Google to do, full scans of the book are posted online, and sending such materials out would sure be an elaborate and rather pointless hoax for anyone to pull off.

The book goes into great detail about the upcoming open source browser, seemingly named Chrome. Among the details divulged, Google Blogoscoped reveals:

It will be based on Webkit.
It will include a brand new, custom Javascript Virtual Machine.
It will have unique, top-of-window tabs that make the browser look almost like a real filing folder.
It’ll offer a souped-up location bar called the “Omnibox.”
It’ll present a home page that features snapshots of your favorite sites on one screen.
It’ll have a private browsing mode comparable to IE’s new InPrivate option.

Of course, no release date or even initial beta target date are mentioned in the materials. You can check out the full comic book for yourself here.

Google

Google Unveils Open Source Security Tool

JR — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:37:21 +0000

Google has just introduced a new open source cryptography utility called KeyCzar.

The toolkit provides “encryption and authentication for both symmetric and public-key algorithms,” explains Google’s Steve Weis. KeyCzar offers the ability to rotate keys without having to change the code itself — something Weis hopes can eliminate common problems in cryptography.

The software is now available at Google Code. More information is already posted in the new KeyCzar discussion group.

Moodle Gets a Spot on Amazon’s Cloud

JR — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:03:34 +0000

Moodle is moving into Amazon’s Web Services cloud platform. The open source educational management system will now offer its university-targeted services through Amazon’s interface. Moodle customers will get virtually unlimited storage space from the deal.

Moodle offers options for professors to build complete online courses. Combined with features provided by its partner DigitalChalk, it allows instructors to conduct streaming video lessons and manage student performance all within the same setup.

Moodle says it’s second only to educational leader BlackBoard in the university learning management system market.

Best Buy Selling Free Software

JR — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:48:30 +0000

Best Buy is now selling a packaged version of the free Linux OS Ubuntu for $19.99.

The program you buy is the same exact one you can download at no cost from Ubuntu’s web site. So why put it up for retail sale? To target users who might not know about or be able to access the free downloadable version, execs say.

“Making it available through Best Buy is an opportunity to reach users who are unaware of Ubuntu or who are bandwidth restricted and don’t want to download Ubuntu themselves,” Corporate Services Director Steve George explains.

The packaged version does include 60 days of support as well as a “getting started” guide. The web site, of course, includes unlimited community support and ample startup documentation.

Your choice.

Nokia Shifts To Open Source

JR — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:44:52 +0000

Just a day after announcing its acquisition of location-based social network Plazes, Nokia has another new property under its belt.

The mobile maker has bought out cell phone software developer Symbian — a company of which it already had a 48 percent ownership. With Symbian fully in its control, Nokia has opted to switch its operating system over to open source. Symbian’s OS is currently used on a variety of phones, including Nokia’s S60. Nokia estimates about seven percent of all cell phones sold last year had the Symbian system in place.

The shift seems to be a clear sign of competition for Google’s upcoming Android open source platform, with Nokia’s CEO going as far as saying he wants to create “the most attractive platform for mobile innovation and drive the development of new and compelling web-enabled applications.” With word just yesterday that Android could be facing delays, the heat is definitely on — and this could be anyone’s game.

Google, for the record, insists everything is on-track with Android, despite strong reports indicating otherwise.

(Image via Wikipedia)

Reddit Opens Up To Open Source

JR — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:12:55 +0000

Reddit is opening its code up to developers.

The site has announced plans for open sourcing of the social news protocol. It has launched a new development site and is actively soliciting programmer input.

Reddit’s alien mascot has more details:

Facebook Platform a Claytons Open Source Effort?

Duncan Riley — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:12:37 +0000

Ive received two emails from Bob Bickel suggesting that Facebook’s decision to open source its platform is a claytons effort. Bob suggested that I print them in full so I have:

“Facebook continues to look like the Microsoft of the Social Networking industry with this latest move of creating an open source project — fbOpen. Open, but not really.

The license they chose is CPAL, and there is an excellent review of what this means at here. The poison pill in this license agreement is that anyone using the Facebook code as part of something else, and puts that up on a website, would need to make all of the code open source. So if MySpace used this code to support Facebook applications, then MySpace would have to open source their entire platform (unless Facebook cuts a private deal with them).

This says that Facebook only wants developers to see the code for the sole purpose of making Facebook applications that run on Facebook.

Until further clarification from Facebook, Ringside will keep our Facebook API implementation free from any of this viral CPAL code that Facebook has released. The LGPL license we use lets anyone use and embed our Facebook API, JS, FQL and FBML implementations in whatever way they want without any obligations, other than contributing any code changes they make back to the community.

My suggestion is to let your voice be heard by Facebook to make their platform true open source either with LGPL or with Apache license, as the Open Social reference implementation Shindig does. We had all expected more from Facebook, and this is truly disappointing.

Then a follow up email:

I just got a call from Ami Vora of Facebook, who has corrected me on following the advice of this article — which I referenced in my earlier email below to you today regarding Facebook’s open source platform announcement. Apparently, the CPAL only applies to open sourcing the files that are changed. So if a class is extended, or the database access logic is put into an API call, then that gets open sourced under the CPAL as well.

Facebook’s use of the CPAL open source license is a step in the right direction:

Upside: The upside is that we love the fact that the community is required to donate changes back to the open source project. This is the reason we use the LGPL at Ringside.

Downside: The downside of the CPAL is the requirement to give attribution. This means a little Facebook badge comes up on all websites that use the Facebook software. This makes sense from a Facebook perspective because it helps them to build their brand in return for donating their software. On the other hand, if every open source project required this, then there would be nothing on web pages except logos — Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Tomcat, JBoss, Spring, Zimbra, Postgres, Lucene, MediaWiki, Firefox, etc., etc.

It will be interesting to see if MySpace is anxious enough to run the 26,000 Facebook Applications on their social network to actually put up a little Facebook logo on their website…”

Food for thought.