On Post Status, Dan Knauss interviewed Steve Burge, founder of PublishPress. With permission form Brain Krogsgard, we repost his answer WordPress’ future and Gutenberg. Read the rest of the Interview on Post Status.
Are you optimistic about the future of open source? What are the things that you see that drive your optimism about WordPress? It seems like there’s a lot of focus on weaknesses and threats, especially around legacy elements in WordPress and now change resistance over Gutenberg, which presents a big unknown.
Dan Krauss, Post Status
Steve Burge, PublishPress
That’s a big question. Let me quickly describe another couple of open source projects [that] went through a massive change like Gutenberg.
In the Drupal world, we just went through Drupal 8. It was done with the best of intentions. Everyone wanted to update Drupal for the modern marketplace. But scope creep set in, and before anyone knew it, years had passed. The goal posts had shifted. The technology chosen at the beginning of the process wasn’t so hot by the end of the process. The upgrade path was very difficult, and both developers and end-users were reluctant to migrate.
In the Magento world, we just went through Magento 2. All the things I said about Drupal 8 can also be said about Magento 2. Except for some reason, it kind of worked. Magento was a struggling platform for several years, but [now it] has a new energy behind it. The community seems re-energized by the fresh technology.
But the alternative is stagnation
So don’t trust anyone who says they know what the impact of Gutenberg will be on WordPress. This could go in any number of directions, both positive and negative. Big challenges lie ahead – and Daniel is tackling many of them! – but the Gutenberg is team is making enormous progress too.
I think everyone involved with Gutenberg knows that this is a major roll of the dice. It’s perhaps the major roll of the dice in WordPress’s history. But the alternative is stagnation, and the Gutenberg team are open about the risks and the rewards.
Steve Burge is the founder of PublishPress, a fork of EditFlow plugin, created by Daniel Bachhuber. Learn more about the entrepreneur at Post Status.
Read the rest of the Interview on Post Status.
Photo by Rick Mason on Unsplash
