What is the gist of it?
I knew what the story was before I even went to check. WordPress is now owned by private equity (in this case Silver Lake). Which means everything will be run for quick profit, and what isn’t profitable will be sold off (or trashed). Expect to pay a wretched Adobe-style monthly mortgage for the right to use it. Because everything private equity touches turns to shit.
You got that backwards… WP Engine is owned by Silver Lake.
Sorry, Joe, I got confused. Well, I’m clearly not the only one, because Automattic is now (as of 23 September) in dispute with Silver Lake — who have been aggressively appropriating the WordPress name.
“Since being taken over by private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018, WP Engine has built a half-a-billion a year business by confusing consumers with their commercial use of the WordPress and WooCommerce trademarks. Automattic has tried for years to get WP Engine to obtain a commercial license for trademark use and contribute to the core software they rely on, but WP Engine has repeatedly declined to partner or contribute. If you gave $1 to the WordPress Foundation, you’d be a bigger donor than WP Engine.”
Silver Lake has much, much deeper pockets than Automattic, and their lawyers will do their utmost to bully them into submission. Which is not to suggest Automattic is a Mom and Pop shop: their board is made up of venture capitalists and corporate executives.
The GPL guarantees the freedom to use, study, modify and distribute the software. Blocking access to certain users could be considered a violation of these fundamental freedoms. Mullenweg’s decision to block WP Engine is therefore subject to remarks.
What seems more important to note is the haste. The interesting question seems to me to be: who still pays to use Wordpress and who will still pay in two years? It seems to me that the same question concerns Social networks 🧐 (including YouTube)
Free is good as long as it allows you to bring in money (whatever the model: “there is no free lunch!”), much less otherwise…