As you may notice, my website (primarily the homepage blogging layout) is substantially different and will likely change around for a while until I come up with a layout style I like. This is due to my switch-over to the new WordPress blogging software.
The reason for my move to WordPress? In a nutshell, it’s Open Source. My previous software package (and arguably the most common platform out there) MovableType used to have once upon a time a very liberal licensing policy. But as of their version 3.0 they became a bit draconian, and if I wanted to upgrade I would be paying hundreds of dollars for my own site and the various other sites I manage. My argument may just be perceived as being a cheap bastard unwilling to pay money for good software; but in my defense, I feel rather miffed by what I perceive as a bait-and-switch action on the part of MovableType’s creators. Their system was made freely available for a long time and it accumulated a whole community of people who developed a wealth of “modules” to extend and support the system. In other words, it seemed like it was “almost” Open Source, but in the end “almost” isn’t enough.
I haven’t entirely gotten adjusted to WordPress, so I’m still kicking the tires here a bit. I’ve tested it enough to say I’m 95% likely to be happy enough with it to stay with this solution. There are some things I’ll have to look at carefully, like how well the dynamic content delivered by the PHP engine (as opposed to “generated-static html files” holds up to Google sniffing and linking. But in general, I think this new system is a keeper.
