MovableType meets New Coke

Stupid Evil Bastard and about a billion other bloggers have learned that SixApart has made one of the biggest gaffes they could have. Faster than you can say “it’s too late to download MT 2.661” the company that developed the software that this blog rests on has changes its licensing. If I were to swtich over, it would cost me nothing — but the group blogs would have to go, unless I was willing to cough up upwards of $600 for the license.

Seeing as SixApart was funded by donations, word of mouth advertising, and the goodwill of people giving to “the cause” I can imagine there are a lot of hard feelings out there. Not that 6A is a co-op or a not-for-profit. It is a company, and has a right to make a profit.

But the way they’ve made the transition shows a lack of sense or good will. I’m looking for new software.

Chutney, I may join you with WordPress, if they ever enable multiple blogs. At least we’ll know it can never turn, since it is covered by the Gnu Public License. If a good number of MT users dub it the sweetheart successor to MT, it will prosper, while MT shrinks.

A dang shame.

3 Replies to “MovableType meets New Coke”

  1. I’ve been enjoying WordPress a lot since I switched. It does need multiple blog/authors features, to be sure, and enough people are requesting it that it’ll happen sooner rather than later. (You can always do multiple installs of WP in the meantime.) The new plug-in feature in 1.2 is great too–and will be even better once there are a bunch of plug-ins. (I think they’re closing in on ten now.)

    Not having multiple blogs, the only thing I’ve missed from MT is the email notification feature for new posts. I’ve asked for that in a plug-in, but I’m sort of depending on the kindness of strangers for that to happen. Maybe if some others (hint, hint) would say Amen to it on that thread it will happen quicker.

    I’ll be shocked if there isn’t a big switch over to WP this summer. The lack of “rebuilds” is the biggest plus, and seems like magic the first few times you use it. For those of us who don’t manage to clean up all our typos and other mistakes for a couple of days, that’s a nice little gimmick.

    Be sure to follow the MT import instructions and republish all your posts as PHP before you uninstall MT. The import to WP will still work (nicely, I might add), but you’ll have do some quirky stuff via htaccess to make sure Google can still find your old posts.

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