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Bloggers Assail Movable Type's New Pricing Scheme
cioxx writes "An immensely popular weblog publishing tool, Movable Type, has announced a new pricing model based on "support level, number of authors permitted, and the number of weblogs permitted per license". MT3D (Developer Edition) for non-commercial users has drifted away from its full-featured, free predecessor and managed to upset many blog authors whose entry summaries can be seen via the trackback feature originating from the initial MT3D announcement. Is this a case of bait-n-switch, or simply a company trying to capitalize on its dominant market share? WordPress (GPL), which is an equally powerful CMS, seems like a perfect candidate for those who are considering a switch to a non-crippled, free alternative."
You can upgrade to as high as version 2.66.1, and the new pricing scheme won't affect your Movable Type site. That's what we're doing at Polstate.com.
By the way, shameless plug:
Polstate.com is the Political State Report, a web site held together by contributors from each state (US) who report on grassroots and statewide political news, especially when relevant to local and state elections. We offer a different flavor of political news, distinct from most other blogs and news sites that focus on the Presidency, war on terror, and national economy.
The november 2003 issue of Business 2.0 showed an intention to go in that direction, even the MT license debate gave clues a long before. It shouldnt be a bad surprise for anyone, but a great loss to the blog comunity.
Or, we could all just RTFSite, which apparently our dear submitter didn't do, and see that they clearly state that they will still offer a free version. I read the news yesterday (since I've been waiting for the 3.0 release to install it) and was slightly disturbed by the "pricing scheme", but I actually read the whole thing, and it does state that they will still offer a free version (the google cache hasn't been updated since the new stuff has been posted, so it's pretty pointless to check it out).
do not read this line twice.
The post containing the rationale for the licensing change contains hundreds of trackbacks from the MT community. Guess what most of them are saying.
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
Not only do they still have a free version but also, no-one is forced to upgrade. It seems people aren't interested in whether it's free as in speech but when it's free as in beer, changes in the pricing structure bring bitter recriminations.
Struggling to find a day everyone can make? WhenShallWe.com
Because I love Perl and I don't much care for PHP/SQL. Check out Coranto here. It's more of a news system (the successor to NewsPro) but it works quite well for my website, destination-life.com
There's no bait or switch going on here at all. There is still a free version available, it's not crippled in any way:
The only thing this does is a) allow SixApart to eat, and b) allow large corporations to buy MT. I know plenty of organisations that want to use it, but couldn't even look at it until it cost more than nothing. Many procurement processes can't deal with Free.
From backroom hobby to multinational company in three years: Good for them, frankly.
bloxsom and pybloxsom (a port of the original Perl) offer an elegant plugin-based architecture with a gentle learning curve if you want to set up your own blog. And because so little is hardcoded into the app itself, you can leverage it to do all sorts of non-traditional sites; I wrote a plugin to enable a webcomic in a few hours.
strike that... i forgot that download.com just points the the publisher's download link for most files.
For the K5 members out there, there are more details here--apparently the licensing structure is considered a bit outlandish (for what used to be a free product), perhaps to push their (cheaper) blog webhosting services. But for those outside the "Blogosphere", this will only lead to momentary head-scratching, as to what these crazy kids are talking about now.
/. and K5--I can't stand discussion forums that don't at least have nested comments and a few other basic refinements, and it's even better if they have sane implementations (that don't involve doing O(n) SQL queries recursively to build the list of comments, for example)
Personally, I've been spoiled by
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
Livejournal.org hosts the codebase (GPL'd) used on Livejournal.com and other clone sites.
I use a Mac and have had no problems with iBlog, from Lifli software. The price fluctuates based on your currency and it's relationship to the Indian Rupee. I paid close to $20 for it. You can install it on up to two seats for that price. It integrates extremely well with .Mac hosted sites too. Read all about it.You can even hack the css and such with your editor of choice.
I hate sigs.
iirc .. MT3D isn't exactly free software
<rant>
http://www.opensourcecms.com/ is a good site to search for alternative weblogs. The nice thing is that they have working demos up that you can access to try out stuff.
The reviews are pretty generic and not much help.
Does anyone know of a good source for reviews on CMS systems?
I also have to question the stats on the link stating moveable type is the most popular weblog. Some prominent blogging software is not counted, such as geeklog, scoop, and (ahem) slashdot.
It's not entirely fair to lambaste moveabletype, they are still offering a non-commercial version of limited capability.
A few weeks ago, when I was evaluating CMS systems, I came across moveable-type, and their lack of a free license is what turned me off. The system that most impressed me was PHPNuke.
My biggest complaint about most of these CMS's are the big holes in documentation.
</rant>
evanchik.net
I was a Movable Type user, but with my latest ISP change I ditched MT for Geeklog. Geeklog is really cool, and nicely integrates with Gallery which I use for images. Both are Open Source and free, so the decision was easy.
A great article over at the other site:
8 23
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/2/171117/8
I disagree. I think everyone really wants free as in speech, but thinks free as in beer is the same thing. Real world objects don't come with complex licenses. We've grown up in a world where both "free"s are the same, so few people really understand how and why software is different. I still don't understand why it's different or at least why we accept it that way.
This poster makes incorrect assumptions based on total lack of knowledge of the topic.
MoveableType is not a service. It's a piece of software like OpenOffice or Slackware. There is no 'price to pay to give blog space to anyone who wants it.'
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Since MT is written entirely in perl and other non-compiled languages, how hard could it possibly be to hack these limitations out of the free version? I'd bet you just have to comment out a few simple checks, and then distribute a patch...via your blog, of course. :)
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
I've never personally used it, but I've noticed what seemed to be a large number of security issues found in the product at a time when I was doing a security audit of a system that was using it.
That's not to say that the other CMS systems don't have their own security problems, and I know the couple that I've written probably had their own issues, but I didn't pull a Matt Wright [of FormMail fame] and go distributing crappy software all over the place, either.
Nuke Security seems to have some information about securing various versions of PHPNuke.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Serendipity.
Written in PHP. Uses MySQL. Lean. Mean. Flexible. Extremely nice plugin API. GPL.
I just switched from Movable Type to Text Pattern and I couldn't be happier. It's more CMS like AND easier to use (granted MT was easy to use but Txp feels much smoother). It makes a good separation of content and display and has a few goodies that make this feel natural.
Sounds like you've already got a solution, but others should really consider Blosxom - it's truly free (not just GPL), and in additoin to being really easy to use, has a bunch of advantages, the bidggest of which is that it understands the concept of using a heirarchical file system to organize posts. Blog entries are simply text files thrown into the appropriate directory. Blosxom can also generate pages dynamically, as most blogs do, or statically, allowing batch updates if you want.
It's written in Perl, and has a large and rapidly growing collection of "plug-ins" that extend its functionality, often in ways that is similar to (or sometimes better than Movable Type's. don't be fooled by its simplicity and small size - Blosxom does nearly everything the larger packages do, and is much, much, easier and more flexible than any other blog program I've run across.
Blosxom really is one of the most impressive programs I've seen in some time. It's worth checking out, and should be considered as an alternative to Movable Type, GreyMatter, Blogger, and the rest more often than it is. Fortunately, a growing number of hosting providers offer Blosxom support, since it's so easy and reliable.
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
Try allinurl:mt-comments
And no one mentioning another one called Nucleus? It's GPL as well.8) I have been using it since last Oct, it's very stable, tons on plugins available.
b2evo This is what I would recommend people check out first.
BBlog (requires PHP version 4.1 or greater & MySQL version 3.23 or greater)
Bit 5 Blog
blosxom (only need ability to run CGI scripts)
drupal.org (mySQL or similar required)
LiveJournal.org
MyPHPblog/Simplog (seems to require MySQL would have to download to be sure.)
Nucleus (requires PHP version 4.0.6 or higher and access to a MySQL database version 3.23.38 or higher)
Pivot (only php required)
pLog (requires PHP 4.1.x or higher and MySQL 3.1.x or higher)
Scoop (requires Apache with mod_perl and mySQL)
TikiWiki (requires PHP 4.1+ and MySQL. Very powerful software.)
WordPress (requires PHP version 4.1 or greater and MySQL version 3.23.23 or greater.)
Like Digital Freedoms? Then donate to EFF before they're gone.
Besides, it isn't about the money. It is about the community. MT has quite the devoted community around the and Six Apart pissed on a lot of shoes.
Time will tell if it is worth it, but perhaps Six Apart now wants to get into the commercial CMS business dominated by other, just as crappy, outfits providing 'solutions' that include invalid markup, bad Information Architecture, and outrageous fees.
Count me a very happy WordPress user; the install is simple, no restrictions on use, and it validates. Most importantly though, no more using stupidto fake paragraphs.
Dixi et salvavi animam meam
Ummm ... while MT has been 'open code' ... MovableType has NEVER been Open Source ... says so right in their documentation.
--- have you healed your church website?
This is why I personally use bBlog, which can even use Movable Type stylesheets.
http://www.bblog.com/
I read a article about blosxom in Linux Journal recently. Sounds like a pretty sane Blogging system.
I've tried a few CMS and read about many. Obviously some are more suitable than others for certain situations. Drupal has been perfect for running my two sites. One has a book and news stories while the other is purely a blog. Drupal's online documentation is very good and the community is very very helpful with users. I highly recommend it.
Developers: We can use your help.
Because we wouldn't want people to be free to contribute, would we? Obviously, we need to get permission from assh... I mean, "enlightened" people such as yourself before posting.
90% of everything is crap. Get used to it.
The NucleusCMS weblog is probably worth considering as MT users look for options. It allows creation and management of multiples weblog from one install, and from one mySQL database. It's setup is simple, it's configuration of simple.
Some of the weblog software that is being recommended is not, in fact, as equivalent in features to MT as are being advertised.
NucleusCM can be found at http://nucleuscms.org
- Derek
I will no longer be using MT. Sure it was a great product, but for Mena, Ben, and the crew I think this was a bad move. Especially since they did this not even a week after Blogger released their upgrade. Why pay for something that should be free.
BTW, I can convert your MT weblogs to pretty much any other weblog if you are interested!
http://www.providenames.com
Blosxom really is one of the most impressive programs I've seen in some time. It's worth checking out, and should be considered as an alternative to Movable Type, GreyMatter, Blogger, and the rest more often than it is. Fortunately, a growing number of hosting providers offer Blosxom support, since it's so easy and reliable.
(...Warning! Shameless plug...)
There are a number a Free and Open Source blogs out there. For the last couple of month, I've been working on Simple PHP Blog. It's written in PHP. It uses flat text files to store data (so you don't need MySQL or anything else.) It's GPL.
Simple PHP Blog
And here are some other great choices:
bBlog
Serendipity
Simplog
Check them out. Maybe you'll find one that fits your needs. And, you can help develop them and give back to the world...
Basically, anyone running MovableType right now has several options:
I've developed and ran sites based on MT, pMachine and WordPress, the site in signature is completely WordPress-based and you can read my impressions in WordPress Testimonials section. I find pMachine the easiest to use, MT the most powerful and WordPress the most attractive with licensing terms and least likely to pull shit like that.
Hopefully this decision by SixApart will move more bloggers and developers into WordPress, which would accelerate improvement. I mean, realistically, MT is not that much better, and even though Wordpress can be rough if you don't know PHP or not willing to play with the code, they seem to be progressing at good speed right now.
Don't forget pMachine! It's the best.
Just use Drupal instead. Free, powerful, extensible... Oh, and the blogger stuff is just a part of it, it's actually a lot more than that (kinda like a software to build Slashdot type of sites).
I installed it on my server and dumbed it down so only the blog is active, and it's working great.
If you wanna come to wordpress, you might find this moving guide handy with all the details about what needs to be done before, during and after the move.
The license allows for modification of the code for personal use.
Not for distribution.
I believe that is sufficient for the case of switching vendors. (Which was my point... that switching from MT is easy because of your access to the code and data.)
--Phillip
Can you say BIRTH TAX
Based on my perusal of the site, this is not Open Source software and has nothing to do with the differences between Open Source and Free software (which are mostly marketing/presentation, by the way).
Most Open Source software is released under the GPL and is also Free software (again, the biggest difference is how the two are presented to PHBs).
This is, though, a good and common example of how proprietary software will usually come back to bite you when you least expect it.
It is free, look on the site:
Not willing to pay for Movable Type yet? This fully-functional version of the application is available free of charge. Important limitations of this license include:
* No support from Six Apart
* No access to paid installation service
* No access to fee-based services
* No promotion of your weblogs through the Recently Updated list
* No commercial usage
* No more than one author and three weblogs
Download Movable Type Free.
Sig & Below
Yuck Fou
I'll probably be modded down for plugging my own work, but I wrote a very simple blogging tool that uses phpBB to manage blog entries and replies. It's phpBB Blog, and it's available under the new BSD license (no advertising clause). So it's free beer and free speech. I'll have a new version release in early June. Maybe some of the MT defectors here could consider it (although really, it's quite simple, probably not useful to many MT fans).
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
Can't agree more!
Of all the free CMS that I recently saw, Drupal is the best of the crop for sure.
It is not only a blog, forums, publishing system, but even have modules for things like syndication, weather, e-commerce and more.
You can see it as a product, or as a framework that you can customize to your own liking.
It runs on Windows or UNIX, either Apache or IIS, and MySQL, Postgresql, or even MS SQL.
Writing a module is not a hard task.
Unless you are anti-PHP or a Perl bigot or something, give Drupal a try.
You will not regret it.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
Today, Six Apart responded to the comments, making some changes based on feedback and clarified the things that they didn't communicate well.
I've written my feelings already: pre- and post-clarification