wp + microsoft = wp hypocrisy

[brandingdavid]

First off, it's a real disservice to people to even link to that garbage. Nothing Duncan Riley has said on WordPress or Matt Mullenweg in any of his articles has a bit of truth in it. Just a bunch of garbage.

I've heard Matt predict a number of times at WordCamps that Microsoft at some point will become an open source dominated company. I think this Azure cloud thing could be a step in that direction. Sure, Microsoft has a pretty bad past when it comes to open source in general but with new leadership, perhaps that tide is beginning to change. Matt has strong beliefes in open source and openness in general. I think we should judge after the fact and not judge what may happen here based on a checkered past.

Duncan is actually a really great guy, and while some of his writings might be clouded by the interest of building his business, I find its no different than the sparkles and glitter that Matt throws around to distract people from his mistakes. I think people should be given the benefit of the doubt either way, and happen to agree that it is at least odd that they'd go that route for their hosting of WordPress.com.

Microsoft is brilliant to get WordPress.com on their service. I just don't understand why Automattic would think its a brilliant idea unless there was some money changing hands.

Anyways... Try not to sling rocks at Duncan. He's a good guy and not everything he says is wrong, just twisted in a way that gets his point across. Something we ALL do.

[DannyGSmith]

If you look at this article, http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Service...en-Web-125998/ it looks like azure will be running php, mysql. According to this article, it does look like it is going to happen. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/...c-blogs-azure/

[zamoose]

Did y'all even read that eWeek piece?

For example, Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg said his company is launching a site called OddlySpecific.com that runs on SQL Azure. That Microsoft would trumpet the existence of a customer so early on in Azure's young career is not big news, but Automattic makes WordPress, a blogging platform based on open-source tools.

They're not moving WordPress.com, nor any existing service to Azure. They're starting a new site.

[zamoose]

More specifically:
Riley misread what was going on and started spreading FUD, bigtime.

[DannyGSmith]

More specifically:
Riley misread what was going on and started spreading FUD, bigtime.

I am unclear why you say that?

[Elpie]

Given Matt's position over ditching Litespeed (http://fatalerror.wordpress.com/2008...-wordpresscom/) and his often-used comments about proprietary software being evil, the news reports made me feel Matt was being hypocritical.

The problem is that most of the online reports are not accurately reporting what Matt said.

eweek is the closest (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/Why-Tim-OReilly-Sees-Microsoft-as-a-Proponent-of-the-Open-Web-125998/)
but still appears to get things wrong.

For example, Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg said his company is launching a site called OddlySpecific.com that runs on SQL Azure.

OddlySpecific.com is not being launched by Automattic - its a Cheezburger Network site.

Matt made no statement about WordPress moving onto Azure. You can read the full transcript of his speech here:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/ozzie/2009/11-17PDC.mspx

IF Matt had said Automattic was moving wordpress.com and the wordpress.org sites to Azure then he would expose himself to claims he was being hypocritical. However, he can change his mind about using proprietary services if he wants to - the world is changing and even a year ago nobody could have predicted that Microsoft would launch a service that was suitable for open source apps to run on.

Fact is, he has not said anything about WordPress getting tied up with Microsoft and the news reports were not quite as accurate as they should have been.

[MiroslavGlavic]

Microsoft had one of their people speak at WordCamp Toronto 2009.

[Brad]

Ray Ozzie & Bob Muglia: PDC 2009
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/e.../11-17PDC.mspx
(via @Viper007Bond on twitter

[DannyGSmith]

All I can say is wow. What is that saying about lipstick on a pig? Azure is going to run on Windows? wow.

[zamoose]

Danny:
I don't have any inside knowledge, but having spoken with some Automattic system admins about their current build-outs, knowing Matt's passion for the GPL, knowing the investments they've made in F/L/OSS and just knowing the project as a whole, the very idea of switching over wholesale to MS cloud hosting simply doesn't pass the sniff test.

...And as I was typing the above, Viper007Bond Twittered the following link to the actual transcript from PDC:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/e.../11-17PDC.mspx

Seems clear-cut to me.