The ongoing feud between Wordpress and WP Engine is threatening open-source principles and good name
The ongoing feud between Wordpress and WP Engine is threatening open-source principles and good name
WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg is trying to force WP Engine to surrender part of its revenue to his company, Automattic, and the feud's repercussions are rippling throughout...
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What a bizarre headline. No it's not. It's proving why FOSS is important. In fact, it's specifically the non-open part of the project (the servers Automattic owns) that's the problem.
Speaking of which,
Mullenweg has demanded a royalty fee of eight percent of WP Engine's monthly revenue for continued access to Automattic's WordPress servers and resources.
tbh, that's totally fair (well, the idea of being paid is, I don't know if the actual cost is). Automattic owns the servers and makes them available to the community, but WP Engine is probably using more than their fair share of it. Probably a better way to do this would be instituting a "free tier" of server access that WP Engine would outcap; after that, either pay your fair share or find another solution.
Instead, Mullenweg throws a tantrum and tries to make this sound like some righteous fight against opponents of open source, rather than what it is: a for-profit company wanting fair compensation for services rendered. It's not some moral thing.
Everyone can save time and just read your synopsis. These are billionaires backed by huge investment funds fighting over service fees.
Right. I mean, there are no heroes here, to be sure; but there are also no horrible dog-kicking villains, either. Just two entitled brats, both trying to take more than they're owed.
Yup