Matt Mullenweg details a significant conflict with WP Engine, a company acquired by private equity, accusing them of trademark infringement, ceasing contributions to the open-source project, and engaging in bad-faith negotiations. This culminated in a multi-million dollar lawsuit and what he describes as a public "smear campaign" against him.
Mullenweg argues that not all projects labeled "open source" adhere to its true principles. He criticizes Meta's Llama for its restrictive licensing, which requires special permission for large-scale commercial use, suggesting it's a strategic move to navigate regulations rather than a genuine commitment to openness.
The discussion reveals the intricate structure of the WordPress ecosystem, where the non-profit WordPress Foundation holds the trademark, but Mullenweg's for-profit company, Automatic, holds the exclusive commercial license. This structure is designed to fund and protect the open-source project while enabling commercial success, as seen with WooCommerce now driving over half of Automatic's revenue.
Mullenweg predicts a rapid shift towards AI-assisted coding, citing Google's report that 25% of its committed code is already AI-assisted. He forecasts that within five years, the majority of code contributed to the WordPress project will be AI-generated or assisted, and envisions AI-powered security scanning for the entire plugin ecosystem.
Automatic operates as a fully distributed company with over 1,700 employees in 90 countries, a model it has maintained since its inception. A key tenet of its culture is a global compensation policy that pays the same salary for a given role regardless of the employee's location, aiming for true equity.
Keep pulling the thread on Matt Mullenweg.