WordPress project has lately build a roof to protect the project from the “bad weather”. But strangely enough they called it WordPress Foundation. Jokes apart, this is great news for the Open Source movement, especially for the WordPress community guys like me. Here is what they say in a few word on the official site:

The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software.

Visit the site here: http://wordpressfoundation.org/ or go directly to their Philosophy page here: http://wordpressfoundation.org/philosophy/

I know I’m late, this is just to keep track of the main releases as I have always aimed to.

WordPress 2.9 provides the smoothest ride yet because of a number of improvements under the hood and more subtle improvements you’ll begin to appreciate once you’ve been around the block a few times. WordPress 2.9 came about packed with a lot of new features from which the WordPress Dev team has pointed out the following:

Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.

Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.

Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.

Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Read more here: http://wordpress.org/development/2009/12/wordpress-2-9/

Today I read a great article of Matt explaining the way he works over at Automattic published  at Inc.Com: It is into two versions, Matt’s version and Inc’s one. Inc seems to write your words in first person their way. That is why Matt decided to rewrite it for his blog readers. I like more the Inc version, even though Matt says: “ but it’s a little misleading“. I am bringing bits here:

***

I go out for lunch whenever I can, which fits well with my preference for no meetings before 11 AM. There’s something very personal about sharing food with someone; it’s a deeper connection than shaking hands in a boardroom. Often when I’m in town I’ll have lunch with Toni Schneider, my CEO. He and I get along super well which is one of the reasons I think the business has worked. He brings gravitas because he’s a digital native but also has great startup experience including being the CEO of Oddpost, a webmail company Yahoo acquired in 2004. Sometimes we’ll go to lunch at 12:30 and stay until 5.

***

For WordPress we’re trying to set up a community that will be around 10 to 30 years from now, one that’s independent from the whims of the market. My role is somewhat like Linus for Linux or Shuttleworth for Ubuntu, affectionately referred to as BDFL, and it’s my responsibility to meet as many users as possible and direct the software in a way that reflects their interest. Last year I probably met 5,000 or 6,000 WordPress users, about half of them who make their living from it. We want to be like Google, eBay, Amazon — they all enable other people to make far more money than the company captures. That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to create a movement.

My Mom started a blog a couple of months ago. Six years into this, and we finally made it easy enough for my Mom to use. (She hates it when I say that.)

I enjoyed it very much. All I can say is: thanks Matt for giving us the pleasure.

Yes, I know I’m late, but I decided to write this post just for the sake of chronology. Not only has WP 2.8 been released with a lot of new great improvements, but it has been downloaded more than 850.000 times already. That’s amazing. As you now know, you can upgrade automatically your WP blog/site to the latest version (since 2.7) or you can download it at WP download section.

Kubrick - Default WordPress Theme

Lately I have been part of a debate about removing the default WordPress theme, “Kubrick”,  over at WeblogTools Collection, where Jeff Chandler introduced a topic about  a ticket in Trac outlining his proposal for a new theme to be based on the current WordPress code-base. Actually, the track author clarified in a comment that he did not intend to have a theme to replace the default Kubrick theme, rather he would explain that:  ”It was never my aim to replace Kubrick, or to have it included as a WordPress ‘default’ theme, rather just an included theme.” However, Jeff the above-mentioned, put into trial the default WordPress theme by claiming:

The way I see it, if you attack the root of the problem and replace Kubrick with a base theme that contains everything DD32 mentioned, this could do nothing but positive things for the WordPress community.

Was He Right?

As a WordPress theme developer, I agree that the default Kubrick theme should be removed from being the default WordPress theme. I do not know what the WrorPress team expect the default theme to do, but, from my position, I think the Kubrick is unnecessary to be there as it does not offer much. All it does right now is being used as a blog theme. I have never used it as the base code of the themes that I have developed, it is too messy and it has a lot of files. I have used the Classic theme several times as it would do better, however, it required heavy recoding too.

What would be the best theme to be included as the default theme or at least come along with them. There are several features that I would like the default theme to contain and come along with. Here they are:

• Is updated with the latest WordPress template tags
• Have Clean Markup
• Make use of WordPress default CSS styling tags
• Is easy to modify without compromising the look and feel
• Is easy to add other features, such as extra sidebars
• Be widgetized without using a list
• Have a simple comprehensive functions.php file

Why All This?

What would all this bring to most interested group, the WordPress users? If WordPress developer have a better example to follow and to built upon, which is updated and at the same time light and valid coded, they would produce eventually better themes and child themes for the vast WordPress community. So, the theme developers are shown a white path to follow which would led them to better products.

Right or Wrong?

I might be wrong, that is human. I would like to hear that. At the same time, I might be right and my post needs to be enreached with other features for the visionary new WordPress theme. What do you think?

new menu arrangement

Yeah, I am very busy, I know. However I managed to dedicate some time to my little cute blog. I did some code optimization work to improve the performance and speed. Also I rearranged the main top menu to improve accessibility to my content and also rearranged the footer of the site to make it more attractive to visitors eye. I hope you guys will spend less time browsing my blog and love it more.

Having in mind the fact that I am in the middle of a lot of work, I am keeping this post short. I wish you a great time!

WordPress 2.7.1 Notification

My dashboard says that WordPress 2.7.1 is out, but no post has been written yet in the development blog of WordPress.org to notify and welcome the new version. I know a lot of bugs have been fixed and perhaps a couple of new features have been introduced, but let’s wait and see what the official version will be.

Update:

SitePoint is running a great book deal to support the victims of the Australian bushfires. For the next 3 days, you can pick any 5 books (in PDF format) and pay for only 1. That’s about $150 worth of books for just $29.95! 100% of the proceeds from this sale will be donated to the Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Yes, we’re serious: 100%. If you buy 5 PDFs for $29.95, then $29.95 is donated. Our ambitious target is to raise more than $50,000 to help the families and communities affected by this tragedy.

We’re offering our entire range of books — from PHP to Project Management — for the sale; designers, developers, freelancers, managers, and business owners alike will all be able to choose a selection of professional books to enjoy.

You have just 3 days to treat yourself to this amazing deal, courtesy of SitePoint, and know that you’re helping Australian families in need. What are you waiting for?

Go now at SitePoint and get five books at the price of one and feel it in yourself that you are being helpful to other human beings and other beings in the planet. Do it now, they need you!

PS: I just bought mine and donated at the same time.