If you’re a Movable Type fan, it’s been a strange few days. “Version 3″:http://www.movabletype.org finally came out, and the blogosphere went into an “uproar”:http://www.sixapart.com/corner/archives/2004/05/its_about_time.shtml over the licensing. With good reason. Before, the license was so vague that it didn’t make sense. And when version 3 was launched this week, it was so specific that it didn’t make sense. I read at least 150 blog entries on the subject, following the trackbacks from the original announcement, trying to get a sense for what I was going to do.
My site is currently 2 blogs, 1 author. Is my site personal or commercial? I don’t know. To be honest, it’s both. And the answer just depends on the day you ask the question. I donated in the past, so a personal license (so I could keep my recently updated key and get support if needed) would be very cheap. My rationale is that while my site supports my commercial endeavors, it’s more of a personal site. I appreciate that SixApart has “clarified”:http://www.sixapart.com/log/2004/05/movable_type_30.shtml the fact that even though a site may have multiple weblogs to define sections, if it’s part of the same URL it’s one weblog. So the “Cancer Action Now”:http://www.canceractionnow.org site would be considered one weblog under their license, even though it’s made up of 6 blogs. Good.
When I work with parents in the Special Education community, I always tell them, “Listen to that tiny little voice.” Don’t listen to what’s coming out of your mouth, or what you’re trying to rationalize. What does your gut say? In this case, my gut is telling me to stick with MovableType. I think they’ll keep working at it until they get it right. They have a right to make money, and given the changes in the licensing now I don’t think their prices are unreasonable. Plus, they’re now saying it’s okay for people like me to openly promote the fact that we’re able to install and support Movable Type and design templates for a fee. That’s good.
So I will be upgrading to MovableType 3.0 at some point with a paid license. I have way too much going on right now. But it will happen in the next few weeks, I’m sure.
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Thanks a lot for your thoughtful comments and for explaining your thinking (and feeling!) behind them. We really appreciate that your gut tells you we’re trying to do the right thing.
I think their prices are extraordinarily unreasonable. It is 100$ with limitations attached. You have to count the number of authors and blogs you have. This is a typical pricing structure used by greedy software companies like Oracle. For example, in Oracle, if you use their software with certain number of transaction, they go ahead and charge you more. Oracle was able to do this, because their software was far more reliable, but MT is not that good. I am using WordPress now and I don’t see a difference. In fact WordPress is better in many areas.
I think what 6A assumed is that, they can charge as much as possible, since they are the Apple or something like that. Also they have typepad service, so forcing people to Typepad is better for them. But as I said, they miscalculated, people do not like to get screwed by VC funded companies.