Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Matt Mullenweg is being an asshat about WP Engine (and in general) but that doesn't mean you have to jump off WordPress. That's actually the power of the GPL: it's enshittification resistant. The flipside of this is that you can't stop freeloading. In fact, freeloading is a feature, not a bug.

Now, if Automattic had CLA ownership over 100% of WordPress, I'd actually be scared, because they could strip the GPL off of new releases and lock the system down. But as far as I'm aware WordPress's copyright ownership is distributed, so Automattic can't just change the license to the Fuck You, Pay Me Public License and rugpull the whole community.

The worst part about this drama is that Matt's not even wrong. WP Engine is kinda shit[0]. But Matt's behavior is extremely unprofessional and he's making WP Engine into the victim of an extortion campaign.

[0] If you're wondering, the thing that makes it shit is not that they disable revisions. It's that they have significant reliability issues, both with their shared and dedicated offerings, and their support teams do not have visibility into their systems to fix those issues.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: