20 years of WordPress: A conversation with Matt Mullenweg, Mike Little and Dries Buytaert

Co-founders of WordPress and Founder of Drupal Discuss Open Source

In this section, the co-founders of WordPress and the founder of Drupal discuss their first meeting and how they got into open source.

Meeting for the First Time

• Mike and Matt haven't seen each other since 2016.

• This is the first time that all three founders have been in the same place at the same time.

• When WordPress started, Matt was 19 years old while Mike was 41.

Getting into Open Source

• Matt believes that open source is the most powerful idea of our generation.

• Richard Stallman's essay on open source inspired Mike to get involved in it.

• Matt learned about open source before it was even termed as such through bulletin board systems with a dial-up modem in the eighties.

• Dries discovered Linux when he was 18 years old through friends.

The Benefits and Challenges of Open Source

In this section, the co-founders discuss some benefits and challenges associated with open source software development.

Benefits of Open Source

• Open source allows people to work together collaboratively to make humanity better.

• Open source communities are inclusive regardless of age or educational background.

Challenges of Open Source

• One challenge is that open source projects can be difficult to monetize.

• Another challenge is that open source projects can become too complex and difficult to maintain.

The Future of Open Source

In this section, the co-founders discuss the future of open source software development.

The Future of Open Source

• Matt believes that open source will continue to grow and become more mainstream.

• Dries thinks that open source will continue to be important in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

• Mike believes that open source will continue to evolve and adapt to new technologies.

Conclusion

Open source software development has come a long way since its inception, but it still faces challenges. However, the benefits of collaboration and inclusivity make it an important part of the technology industry's future.

Building a Wireless Bridge

In this section, the speaker talks about his experience building a wireless bridge and how he fell in love with Open Source.

Finding a Solution

• The speaker contacted Alcatel-Lucent to build a wireless bridge but was told it would cost $100,000.

• He found a small company in the UK that built PCI wifi cards and started making contributions to Linux Journal to get fast internet.

• The speaker fell in love with Open Source during this process.

First Contributions

• The speaker's first contributions were to Linux, my SQL, CVS, and Subversion.

• Another guest's first contribution was Texturize.

Connecting with Others Online

In this section, the speakers discuss their experiences connecting with others online through forums and blogs.

Hacking Around on Forums

• The speaker talks about being just a kid on the internet hacking around on forums and hanging out.

• Every time he logged on it felt like he was connecting to his people or tribe.

Blogging

• Blogs were a big part of connecting with others online for all of the speakers.

• One guest's first contribution was Texturize which had a great tagline: "So good it'll make your quotes curl."

Visiting the Gutenberg Museum

In this section, the speakers talk about their visit to the Gutenberg Museum and how they have helped take digital publishing mainstream.

Visiting the Museum

• The speakers visited the Gutenberg Museum in Antwerp, which was responsible for most of the print production in the world.

• The speakers have helped take digital publishing mainstream.

Typography

• There is a whole science behind typography and Matthew Butterick writes great books on it.

• The speaker learned that the button on your keyboard is not actually an apostrophe but a single prime mark.

Learning Regular Expressions

In this section, the speaker talks about how he learned regular expressions and how it helped him enhance typography in his blog posts.

Learning Regular Expressions

• The speaker's father suggested that he learn regular expressions to solve his typography issues.

• The speaker learned regular expressions through the Pearl book and was able to craft some that could parse text and automatically enhance typography.

• The code was integrated into B2, which blew the speaker's mind as code he had written with his hands was running hundreds of times per day somewhere in the world.

Evolution and Open Source

In this section, the speaker talks about evolution, DNA as source code, and the four freedoms of open source.

Evolution and Open Source

• The speaker reflects on evolution and how billions of years ago there was a single cell but now there are paintings on walls, lights, electricity, water etc.

• DNA is like source code with four freedoms - use software for any purpose; see how software works; modify software; redistribute modifications.

• It is important for all software used to have these freedoms embedded because if not we are removing our agency.

Building a World with More Freedom

In this section, the speaker talks about building a world with more freedom through open source contributions.

Building a World with More Freedom

• The speaker wants to build a world with more freedom, agency and autonomy.

• Open source people are different and Drupal has one of the most beautiful open source communities in the world.

• The speaker believes that fundamental human rights include the four freedoms of open source.