I acknowledge the faith you place in the ideals of OS creates a moral fabric to motivate you, your employees and some customers. I cannot question your success thus far.

You’re a priest of open source. Forgive me for questioning the faith. 🙂

You’re conflating free and Free. Open Source doesn’t suffer as people make money, and they don’t have to make money in ways that compromise OS ideals.

Yes, I’ve seen it. Not exactly a step-by-step recipe for re-creating your company.

If OS were dominating your space, then how would you be paying salaries to 35+ employees and supporting your growth as a company? The philosophical movement of OS certainly captures mindshare which has helped WP, but it appears you’ve evolved the company beyond it. These days are you more a philosopher or a business man?

Personally, I capped my philosophy studies as a minor, because it wasn’t teaching me to make things, survive and thrive in a competitive world. Arm-chair theory and work-for-free would only help me if barter returned as a dominant form of trade.

Would you allow me to use WP VIP for free in exchange for the recipe to my GrandMa’s Apple Keuchen? I’ll even make you the first batch. 🙂

Check out http://code.trac.wordpress.org/ 🙂

I can attest, building and supporting a hosted platform to scale is very difficult which, presuming it sells well, is another win for a commercial, closed system.

If the philosophical principle of open source were stronger than the commercial value, you would also open source your hardware infrastructure intelligence, so other companies could replicate and benefit from it. I don’t blame you for protecting the trade secrets of your core business 🙂

Domination and commoditization are not mutually exclusive, nor is it without innovation or after all the “smart” companies have moved on. The LAMP stack is a good example of OS coming in fast and hard. OS is still new on the consumer side, but you could point to Wikipedia, Firefox, and WordPress as positive examples.

The success of OS has nothing to do with a marketing strategy or the idea of a loss leader, you shouldn’t confuse the tactics of certain companies with the broader movement which has strong philosophical and social underpinnings. A hosted service is another tactic, but is much harder than you say.

If it takes 30 years before an open source alternative dominates a market, that’s not domination–that’s commoditization. Like once hi-tech patented cathode ray tubes now being mass-produced in Asia. Inevitably hi-tech will lose its luster, but the smart companies that originally invented it, will invent and market new technologies to profit ahead of the curve. Linux does not quite fit into that comparison, but it’s a big leap to predict it will prevail on the desktop…

The open source path serves as a marketing strategy, a loss-leader for the commercial–where money is made to advance the product. I am cognizant of the value added from the developer community in plug-ins… But am I wrong that WordPress.com is growing relative to .org? The hosted service is a solid, low-cost, product requiring little technical expertise to scale.

Usually what I say is “Open Source eventually dominates every market it enters.”

The eventually is key and depends on a lot of factors like the complexity of the problem and the quality of the competitors. In the desktop space Microsoft and Apple are both kicking butt right now and it might be another decade before we see desktop Linux in double-digit market share but I do think it is inevitable.

It’s not so simple. The war between open source and dictatorial, controlled systems rages on with new battlegrounds each year. http://jasonfranciskraft.com/?p=103

It is always refreshing to hear a CEO who not only understands the GPL philosophy and core freedoms, but stands behind them 100%. Software features and usability issues will come and go; the open code will last.

As you say, it does not make a company “bulletproof”. You’ve even taken some hits for it (occasional FUD, Six Apart’s Akismet clone, or the non-GPL theme expulsion controversy), but I think it is the right course in the long run.

And nice xkcd reference 🙂

I watched the whole thing despite a busy day. Very interesting to hear about your plans for the future of WordPress. I think the CMS Press idea sounds especially promising. Do you have any plans to attend a Word Camp or other event in Toronto in the foreseeable future? It would be great to meet you in person.

Cheers.

-@Gar1n

will definitely do… and hopefully catch you next time I get a change to go to WordCamp, whether Chicago or another.

Do you know how funny this ready when you’re not english native?

Last week – this week… I’ll be sure to check in next week to see what’s next! 😉

Best bet for interview is to grab me at a WordCamp we’re both at.

I don’t keep a list but I want to, maybe someday when I’m better organized.