WordPress—the leading blogging and content management system across the web—is releasing version 5.0 on Thursday [6 Dec]. This marks the first major update in a year, and the most substantive update to the platform in several years, bringing with it a variety of speed optimizations and new features intended to make it more flexible to fit an increasing number of use cases.
The largest change coming to WordPress 5.0 is the Gutenberg editor, which completely reimagines the way writers and other content creators interact with their website. In contrast to increasingly popular markup editors used in other blogging software, the Gutenberg editor is fundamentally WYSIWYG, though with a design flexibility that allows content to be easily reformatted across screen sizes and devices.
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WordPress, the most common content management system (CMS) on the Web, has about 60% market share. It is even found on nearly a third of all web sites, not just those running a CMS. Given this enormous presence, WordPress has changed the Web quite a bit through its existence. Here are seventeen trivia about WordPress.
If one person were to work on WordPress by themselves, it would take [them] 151 years of work to complete the project. Of course, there were many more people helping to build WordPress, but it's fun to think about how much went into the development of this software so many people use today. And to think they did it for free!
[...] It's hard to find a piece of software that is more influential than WordPress. It's used by millions of people all around the world, and because it's so good, and also because it's free, it will likely continue to be the CMS of choice for years to come. But no matter what happens, we can always be grateful for WordPress for making it easier for us to build websites, connect with one another, and turn the internet into what it was always meant to be: a safe space for free speech and uncensored self-expression.
Previously:
(2020-02-21) Hackers Exploit Critical Vulnerability Found in ~100,000 WordPress Sites
(2018-12-07) WordPress 5.0 Release Brings Brand New Editor for Easier Page Design
(2018-03-05) About a Third of All Web Sites Run on WordPress
(2015-12-28) Web Design Tools for Moderate Users
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zemm on Friday December 07 2018, @03:59PM (4 children)
Most developers are enthusiastic about the future of Gutenberg. I think it's going to be great. However most also agree that it's being released a little too soon (bugs and accessibility issues are the main concerns) and also that the average non-technical person with a WordPress website is not being adequately educated (or perhaps warned) about the consequences of updating to 5.0. See many of the comments in Matt's announcement:
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/12/04/new-5-0-target-date/ [wordpress.org]
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday December 07 2018, @04:38PM (2 children)
As long as one can get at the source, and as long as the WYSIWYG displays anything you add, including custom CSS and macro expansions, this is fine.
If, OTOH, it locks you into a limited-by-editor understanding of coding the page, it's garbage.
--
I'd get my mind up from the gutter, but you know, I've never been up there, and it frightens me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @05:32AM (1 child)
You mean like what Atlassian did with changing from wiki markup [atlassian.com] to IDE only [atlassian.com]?
They screwed over the technical users of their product. As of today they still haven't resolved the issues.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @05:01PM
that's what they get for using slaveware as a service
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Saturday December 08 2018, @01:35AM
How nicely will the Gutenberg editor play with distributed revision control? Most word processors do this abominably. Will merges all be pick one file or the other, with no actual merging of changes?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 07 2018, @04:54PM (2 children)
People have life so easy these days. When I was a kid, Mother had to press our clothes to look good for church, or whatever. And, our words, before a recital. I mean, just regular homework wasn't pressed. But something important? Wash them up, get out the ironing board and the iron, and start pressing them to look their best.
Nowadays, clothing is drip dry, wash & wear, and all the word pressing is done in the web. Life is so easy . . .
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday December 07 2018, @10:18PM
I miss messing with xf86config too. Good ol' days.
Mess it up? NO GUI FOR YOU!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @10:44PM
Don't you have something more pressing to do?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday December 07 2018, @05:40PM (3 children)
... Do I get to use the old editor as an option? Or are they going full Microsoft - you'll grow to love it, we're sure, and it doesn't matter if learning a new interface is something you can't afford the time for right now.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @07:40PM (1 child)
They're making the old editor available as a plug-in, but they'll be taking the plug-in away in 2022.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday December 10 2018, @12:29PM
I thought you were joking, but this is exactly what's happening. What's more, the plug-in is not installed by default, and you have to install it by hand.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday December 07 2018, @08:46PM
Unlikely. Wordpress is GPL.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 07 2018, @08:52PM (2 children)
Who gives a shit about content creation when the platform itself is fundamentally fucked? Personally, I block all Wordpress sites and look at them as infected servers most likely. Most Wordpress sites I come across are owned by people who perform zero maintenance. They look at it like an investment that needs to exist for 5 years without any added costs. So many of them break because the 3rd party shit isn't updated, licensing expires and stops working, or they get pwned.
If Wordpress has done anything, it's creating thousands of thousands of jobs for people to unfuck it :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday December 07 2018, @10:20PM
So... wordpress is good for the Indian economy you say!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Saturday December 08 2018, @05:48AM
Wordpress lowers the bar for web publishing. Unfortunately, that also incurs risk for inept system admins screwing their own site. Still, an open source CMS being the most popular is ultimately good for the internet (in my opinion). Otherwise we would have the equivalence of Geocities on Google or Facebook hosted websites.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Saturday December 08 2018, @12:58AM
The first rule of the Internet: any time someone offers you a big IMPROVEMENT on a tool that you use daily you should immediately plan for how to avoid the upgrade.
Admittedly Wordpress has improved significantly from the early days, but this still looks like a massive headache.
And, for the whiners, Wordpress still remains the fastest, easiest, cheapest way to get a good looking, functional, small web site up fast. It still remains insanely customizable and has a deep. deep support community. And has an impressive level of functionality built in out of the box. Plus, if you're using any reasonably modern web host the install and the updates will be automatic.
There's a reason why there are so many Wordpress sites out there, and it isn't that people are cheap or lazy.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Monday December 10 2018, @12:56PM
I tried the new editor, and I was greeted by the following incomprehensible message:
The world of what?
I also saw the usual trendy stuff, such as gray text on a white background and monochromatic line drawings instead of icons. This looks like even more of a train wreck than the previous "new improved" editor, which I've never used.
Yes, I know that deep down TeX works with boxes, with which you can do anything, but the reason for using a WYSIWYG editor is to avoid having to deal with that. Besides, these boxes are not nestable, which might have provided some flexibility. They really want users to have to insert blocks for every piece of text, heading, image, list, etc.?