In a post from Search Engine Journal, Roger Montti reports that Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of the WordPress open source content management system, says that the lawsuit with WP Engine could end WordPress.
Honestly this has me fuming. Because WordPress is so much more than just Matt. It has a huge community of supporters and developers that won’t let this happen.
What could happen, and should happen, is that WordPress gets forked and that version taken over by the community-at-large.
Matt could shut down WordPress.org and everything and the community would find a way to keep the core software running.
To me, this crowing from Matt is a play for sympathy for something HE started and is now probably feeling he’s gotten in too deep.
The growing consensus, from what I see online, is that Matt has lost the PR battle and is now on the defensive. I’m not sure what he can do to reverse course. But honestly he won’t, he’ll just keep digging himself into a hole.
Am I overly concerned that the WordPress software that powers 40%+ of the Websites on the web going away totally? No.
I am worried about what my clients and future clients think about using the software.
Matt is hurting much more than just himself here.
It’s unforgivable.
Comments
3 responses to “Matt Mullenweg Says WPE Lawsuit Could End WordPress… Um Nope!”
@seth Personally not su much of a WordPress fan, but I do still think of it as being easy for users to use and super easy to install. Hence when I have a client who wants to migrate off some obscure cms, I would recommend WordPress. I’m holding off recommending this particular client the switch since the whole WordPress drama started because I’m just not sure what will happen.
I know it’s so uncertain. But I think WordPress or a Fork of WordPress will still exist an thrive minus Mullenweg.
Already talk from big providers like GoDaddy and Newfold digital (Bluehost etc) of replicating the repo.