I feel that integration could be seamless and has plenty of positives.. But the bitterness and hostility makes me feel like wordpress is specifically going to try to bomb Mu and shoulder them out… This feels like a hostile takeover with the guise of ‘larger community base, more devs, etc’…

Basically when the merge comes, I will first check to see what version edublogs is on, and if it even still exists. If this looks positive, I will then duplicate my install, implement the new code and see how much breaks. And If it gets too difficult, I will hold onto 2.8.6 and thumb my nose at the new offering…

What might not be realized is that thousands of ‘lesser’ souls like myself (only in the WP/MU sense, I/we can kick your behind on many other fields :) ) are currently worried about all of this name-calling and inarticulate throwing of words like ‘discontinued’vs ‘merger’.

Frankly I do not care much about the fight between James and Ma.tt, as there are clearly deeper feelings at play, which do not have to be released into the open domain if I can choose.
I also do not care on which forum to ask or give help from/to other users.

I do find it annoying that the post of Nightlyfe that Tuomas referred to above comtains a link that leads me to a sign up page as it is on a closed forum.

I do not find it any more annoying that I need to pay for domain mapping on WP.com than that I need to pay for plugins, as both are extra’s and not needed to run a site and both are offered by commercial companies.

All the thousands of us that hear these rumours sideways are just wondering if the following can be confirmed:

- Will current WPMU installs that keep on updating to latest version -with the same amount of users as the regular WP as Matt stated- be able to migrate to the joint version or not.
- If not, is there any timeframe that Donncha will lose his current job?

For me it seems (maybe wishful thinking) that actually _WordPress_ is being discontinued, but the name is being kept for a product that has WPMU features or am I thinking too simple here?

Cheers from the road,
Harry aka Bike

(ps what’s up with the tab order of this theme, I am jumping all over the page before being able to post a comment :)

Now, hopefully, we might also get clarification from Mullenweg.

The thing with GPL’d code is that it’s hard to sell. And I don’t think you should. Sharing the code gives you more goodwill – and others can contribute to it. But you can and do sell other things. And there is genuine demand for those things. Blogs.mu and WP.mu are good examples of services that can be marketed. Again here: keys at hand and flexibility are a must.

But I think the Premium service has it’s place in the ecosystem as well, in producing and maintaining high-quality plugins. Plugins that not everyone needs, but those who need, need them so badly that they are willing to pay someone to do the developement maintenance for them.

As for the future, WPMUDEV seems to be up for some pretty exciting possibilities.

From what I’ve been following, it seems that it will be WPMU *brand* that is discontinued and the WordPress *product* that is being discontinued. WPMU will be named WordPress, and all the people contributing to WordPress will suddenly be contributing to what was known as WPMU.

My guess for the timing is major release: “WordPress 3.0 – WordPress goes multi-user.” (I just made that up, I am in no way affiliated with the products).The change in the major revision can justify some breaks in the backwards compatibility – which almost certainly will occur. (Personally, I’d like to see the way users and blogs are associated being reworked as a separate table, not as a field in the user table.)

For WPMU and WPMUDEV Premium this is actually a great opportunity. Looking it from the technical point of view (not brand) the user base of WPMU will soar. WPMUDEV folks have a supreme understanding and experience of working with the “new” WordPress (current WPMU). In addition WPMU has a great supply of plugins and other goodies waiting to be used by the new users. Finally, I think that the nightlyfe has good points that could show a path for WPMUDEV’s future. Serving the community and selling support (like they do now: maintenance, setup, development) for their amazing plugins. Some of the more complex plugins could actually be released free: it would be both good advertising, and since they are complex people would have to come for the commercial service for support and development anyway.

So instead of fighting against the tide, it could be a good time to start working for it. Trying to ensure that the WP 3.0 will be as much WPMU like as possible, so that you would have the technological edge when your customer base explodes, and trying to be sure you have all the goodwill and fame when these people are ready to pay for some expert advice on this “new” technological platform.

Just my 2c.

All this means is Automattic will bring in the satellite development team responsible for the MU code and simply have everything under a single product.

It makes good technical and business sense to do this. The ‘WordPress’ name is stretched enough with there other products such as VideoPress, BuddyPress etc. Having TWO versions of the core software is stupid.

It would just mean that WPMU.ORG could fork it and continue on with developing it…