WordPress News Roundup January 2010: The WordPress Foundation Launches and WordPress 2.9.1 Ships

January 2010 started the year that would define modern WordPress. The 2.9 line got its first maintenance release on January 4, after more than a million downloads of 2.9 in just over two weeks, and the core team published a development schedule for WordPress 3.0, the release that would merge WordPress MU into core.

On January 22 the project also unveiled the WordPress Foundation, a non-profit set up to support the software and its community over the long term. Its new website ran on the in-development 3.0 code and an early version of the theme that would become Twenty Ten.

WordPress Core Updates

• WordPress 2.9.1: Released on January 4, 2.9.1 fixed a handful of minor issues and the cURL-related bug that stopped scheduled posts and pingbacks from processing on some hosts. The announcement noted that 2.9 had passed a million downloads.
• 3.0 scope and schedule: WordPress.org said early in the month that 3.0’s scope would be set within days, and the January 14 developer chat discussed the newly published 3.0 schedule. The headline goal was bringing MU’s multi-site features into standard WordPress.
• WordPress MU 2.9.1: The separate multi-user edition shipped 2.9.1 with the trash, image editor and bulk plugin upgrades, prompting questions about whether it would be the last MU release before the merge.
• Open source design plans: A January 13 post declared that 2010 would be the year WordPress would “dive into open source design,” building on the icon contest, a design component in Trac and the header refresh contest.

Other WordPress News

• The WordPress Foundation: On January 22 WordPress.org published the first post from the new WordPress Foundation site at wordpressfoundation.org. The Foundation was created to protect and promote WordPress independently of any company, and later in the year it would take ownership of the WordPress trademark.
• WordCamp Boston: Held on January 23, the event drew attendees from across the region, including WP Tavern’s Jeff Chandler, who recapped it afterwards.
• Early 2010 WordCamps: WordPress.org promoted a run of WordCamps in the first months of the year as a way for people to get involved.
• bbPress plugin spotted: Chat logs revealed an official bbPress plugin listing in the repository, an early sign of plans to rebuild the forum software as a WordPress plugin.
• Genesis in beta: StudioPress opened a beta of its new Genesis framework to its all-theme members, with a public launch set for February 1.
• Page.ly on WordPress Weekly: Joshua Strebel explained Page.ly’s mix of WordPress.com-style convenience and self-hosted flexibility.
• Repository clean-up: Several MaxBlogPress plugins were removed from the WordPress.org directory, part of continuing enforcement of directory guidelines.

Security Alerts and Plugin Vulnerabilities

January had no core security advisory. WordPress 2.9.1 was a maintenance release, though it mattered for reliability: on affected hosts, the cURL bug it fixed had silently stopped scheduled posts from publishing. Site owners who had delayed upgrading to 2.9 over the holidays were encouraged to go straight to 2.9.1, which also carried the trash, image editor and batch plugin updates introduced in December.

Industry Trends and Insights

Creating a foundation separated the open source project from the company most closely tied to it. With Automattic running WordPress.com and employing many core developers, a non-profit gave WordPress a neutral home for its name and community programmes, a structure similar to those used by other major open source projects.

• “Multisite” as a feature: Commentators argued that after the merger, running many sites should be seen as a feature set within WordPress rather than a separate product called MU.
• Core plugins experiment: Discussion of canonical or “core” plugins continued, with supporters framing them as an experiment in keeping core lean.
• Premium themes mature: Interviews with leading commercial theme designers described an increasingly competitive market.

Theme of the Month: Twenty Ten

Not yet released, the theme then known simply as “2010” was already live on the WordPress Foundation’s new site in January. Announced in December as Kubrick’s replacement, it was being built alongside 3.0 to showcase new features such as custom menus, headers and backgrounds.

Plugin of the Month: WP-DB-Backup

Austin Matzko’s WP-DB-Backup made it easy to export a WordPress database and email or download the backup on a schedule. With a major release and a database-touching merger ahead, January was a good moment for site owners to make sure they had a working backup routine.

Host of the Month: DreamHost

DreamHost remained one of WordPress.org’s recommended hosts and a popular home for developers experimenting with multi-site setups. As 3.0 promised to bring networks of sites to every install, hosts with flexible domain and subdomain handling became increasingly attractive.

Founder of the Month: Joshua Strebel

Joshua Strebel, co-founder of Page.ly with Sally Strebel, used his January appearance on WordPress Weekly to explain why WordPress users would pay someone else to handle upgrades and maintenance. His bet on managed WordPress hosting would soon be followed by a wave of competitors.

Looking Ahead to February 2010

February was set to bring the public launch of StudioPress’s Genesis framework on February 1, BuddyPress 1.2 with support for single WordPress installs, and continued 3.0 development including work on a new menu management system.