The Movable Type Open Source Project was announced in conjunction with the launch of the Movable Type 4 Beta on June 5th, 2007. The MTOS Project is a community and Six Apart driven project that will produce an open source version of the Movable Type Publishing Platform that will form the core of all other Movable Type products.
Join the MTOS Community
Join the MTOS developer community now by subscribing to the mtos-dev mailing list. Parties interested on in receiving news and announcements regarding the project can choose to join the mtos-announce mailing list.
What is the Movable Type Open Source project?
Movable Type Open Source, or MTOS, is the open source project that will consist of a GPL-licensed version of Movable Type 4.0, to be released in Q3 2007 Q4 2007, and resources for the already large community of Movable Type developers, hosted at www.movabletype.org/opensource.
What is the time frame for a release of the Open Source project?
MTOS will be released by the end of 2007.
Why an open source option?
It's simple: our customers and our community have asked for an open source version of Movable Type. Many customers and developers in the Movable Type community were looking for a version of Movable Type that they were free to modify for their own needs. Additionally, there are community members who are looking to bundle an open source distribution of Movable Type with other open source products. We have been considering this option for some time but decided to base MTOS on the MT4 line, which is why this announcement coincides with MT4.
Why now?
We felt the perfect time was with the introduction of Movable Type 4, which is the culmination of more person years of development than any other release of Movable Type as well as the future of the Movable Type platform.
Are you abandoning the commercial version of Movable Type?
Absolutely not. In fact, we've never been more committed to the commercial success of Movable Type, nor more excited about its prospects in the market. Movable Type is in use by more enterprises, media companies and educational institutions than any other installable blogging platform, and that success makes it easier than ever to offer developers, power bloggers, and personal users the open source product they've been asking for. With the release of Movable Type 4.0 we are demonstrating our commitment to the commercial version of the product with the biggest development investment we've made in any version in Movable Type's history.
How do I get the open source version of Movable Type?
The MTOS distribution will be available for download / checkout later this summer at www.movabletype.org.
Why is there a lag between the launch of the commercial and open source versions of Movable Type?
Before we released an open source version of Movable Type we wanted to engage with the community regarding its development and scope. Plus, we wanted to give ourselves enough time to build and release a high quality product and to incorporate all that we learned during the beta period into open source version. To learn more about the open source project, visit its website http://www.movabletype.org/opensource/.
If you have questions about the Open Source Project, by all means, leave us a question or comment below.
onoh
June 12, 2007 7:15 PM | Reply
hi, i have 2 questions.
1) can i upgrade "Movable Type Open Source" from "MT4 Beta" ?
2) can i get japanese version of "Movable Type Open Source" ?
Byrne Reese
June 14, 2007 12:32 PM | Reply
@onoh - thank you so much for your questions. I am sorry I have not had a chance to reply sooner.
1) Yes, you absolutely can upgrade from MT4 to MTOS. However, how the app will change is still being worked out. That is what I want to discuss soon on the mtos-dev mailing list. But more importantly, MT4 will be available in two forms as MT is today: a free personal edition and a paid commercial edition. The open source version is actually going to be a slightly different product (they will share probably 99% of the same code and will look the same)... But I am getting ahead of myself. This is exactly what we will be discussing on the mtos-dev mailing list.
2) We are still working on internationalization of MT4. Eventually a japanese version will be made available for MTOS, but I am not sure when that will be.
Thank you so much for your inquiries!
Terry Heath
June 16, 2007 9:31 AM | Reply
Could you clarify the licensing for MT4? What is the difference between acceptable uses of the Open Source and Commercial versions? For instance, could an internet marketer use the open source version to operate a group of blogs that are designed to generate Adsense income?
Byrne Reese
June 16, 2007 10:12 AM | Reply
Under the terms of the GPL, the license we are currently planning on using with MTOS, users of the software are completely unrestricted in how they can use the software. They can use it to power a blog that generates $1,000,000 in revenue if they wanted to. So MTOS is unrestricted in terms of use, allows for redistribution but with restrictions. Here is perhaps a good way to describe it all:
Cyclysm
June 19, 2007 5:28 PM | Reply
Is their going to be a module written for Joomla API and Moveable Type? How about working with Joomla CMS system? Has anyone attempted this? Is their an interest in the community?
Joe
June 25, 2007 6:11 PM | Reply
Will the open source version has any migration scripts ?
Thanks;
LousyWeather
June 26, 2007 6:37 AM | Reply
That question about the Joomla!-module is the one I would like to ask, too. Since version 1.7, I am using MT and now I have started to work with Joomla!. Thus, a combination of both would suit my needs for a comfortable blogging module within the Joomla!-CMS perfectly!
Greetings from Old Europe, LW
Byrne Reese
July 10, 2007 12:02 PM | Reply
One question we have received from a number of users is about the use of the name "Movable Type" in association with products that utilize MTOS source code.
The open source license associated with MTOS pertains to the project's source code only. The name "Movable Type" is actually a registered trademark and thus cannot be used without the express and written permission of Six Apart. In other words, third parties are not permitted to redistribute altered versions of MTOS under the product name "Movable Type."
It is however safe to say that "this project utilizes, or is based upon code from the Movable Type Open Source Project."
I hope this clarifies any questions you might have. If not, please contact us and we can help resolve any remaining concerns or questions you might have.
Mike Donaghy
July 20, 2007 10:26 AM | Reply
This is the thing that the MT Community really needed
anonymous
July 25, 2007 4:37 AM | Reply
Erm, I have a question.For MT4( the one available on the front on movabletype.org) is it open sourced? Also,are the templates of the same style independent on each blog?Thanks.
Raffaele Paparella
July 28, 2007 11:10 AM | Reply
Hi, A question: I have a Commercial licence MT version 3.4 with 5 Users I wish to give free to the customers (community) the use of a blog I must installs a MTOS separated from MT commercial license?
Fernando
August 15, 2007 4:46 AM | Reply
I still have a question about the licensing model: ok, so I can have any number of blogs on a personal license. But can I insert Adsense links in my blogs? Or links to other affiliate programs? What if I start making a decent income from my blogs? At which point do I have to turn "commercial", and how is that determined?
Chris
August 15, 2007 11:31 AM | Reply
Byrne, thanks for the chart in your comments above. Could you expand on the difference in features between MTOS and MT4, particularly the community focused features? As I understand, the free personal licence allows for use of all features and the opensource version has some removed.
I'd like to use adsense/affiliates in my blog. Is this allowed under the personal licence or would that be considered 'commercial' and therefore not allowed, as per your description above? What defines commercial for Six Apart?
Gilles Racine
August 15, 2007 4:53 PM | Reply
Hi,
Do I see a semantic change in the use of MT4 under the free version of Movable Type for personal, non-commercial use?
You are commenting (July 10) on this very blog that under the terms of the GPL (MTOS) we can make a blog that "generates $1,000,000 in revenue if we(they) wanted to".
Should I want to download MT4 today, there is no such venue when I look at the License Agreement where:
"Affiliate or associate fees that are earned by a personal blog site and are payable to a single individual and that are earned through activities incidental to the main purpose of the site are permitted under the Non-Commercial Purposes of this Agreement.".
I read "activities incidental to the main purpose"...
Should we understand that the GPL-licensed version of Movable Type 4.0, to be released in Q3 2007 will stand by your words about commercial use?
Should we understand also that the release candidate 4 of MT4 that we downloaded earlier is more akin to the commercial version than the MTOS version that would be offered with reduced functionality?
Maybe a little clarification would help us here as the active download link for MT4 brings us (as of August 15) to the "STANDARD PERSONAL USE LICENSE" and no more to the open-source version of MT4!
Thanks for any clue!
Oli
August 16, 2007 7:51 AM | Reply
Byrne,
Is there anywhere where the "more" of your "base+more" distinction between MTOS, personal and enterprise versions is fully explained (ie what features/abilities does MTOS lack compared to the free personal and commercial versions)? Also are there any feature differences for the educational version (I'm specifically interested in higher-ed)?
TIA
peace - oli
Byrne Reese
August 16, 2007 5:44 PM | Reply
We actually did not modify our licenses between MT3 and MT4. Both personal and commercial licenses remain as-is. This fall we introduce yet one more license: GPL. Of course the GPL version will actually be applied to MTOS (not "MT4") which will contain virtually all the features that MT4 does.
What should be clarified is what the GPL license allows and doesn't allow for. Under the GPL you can run MTOS on a blog that makes as much money as you can imagine, and you are under no obligation to pay us. In fact the GPL cannot compel you to pay us for anything at all. What the GPL compels users to do is disclose changes to the source code that they make should they redistribute the software and under what license they are allowed to redistribute the software. For the most part, this affects a very very very small number of users. Other then that, MTOS will be completely and totally unconstrained.
Byrne Reese
August 16, 2007 5:54 PM | Reply
Good questions Chris. First I would like to address the use of AdSense within the Personal Edition - the collection of referral and affiliate fees, as well as advertising revenue is perfectly fine under the terms of the Personal Edition of Movable Type.
As for the feature difference between MT4 and MTOS, that is a conversation I hope to begin soon on this blog (movabletype.org). With making MT open source we didn't want to cram anything down our users throats. We wanted to engage them and give them an opportunity to discuss our strategy and help us to build out the feature differentiation between the two products.
Smitthi
August 17, 2007 2:08 PM | Reply
Hi Byrne,
Would I be able to modify MTOS into other languages such as Chinese or Thai?
and when MTOS will actually come out , next month?
Thanks
S
Byrne Reese
August 17, 2007 3:03 PM | Reply
The need to modify the source code to support additional languages is not necessary. Movable Type, being a product used literally around the world, has developed quite an extensive localization system to support multiple languages. To take a peak at how it works one need only look at /path/to/mt/lib/MT/L10N/*. If you want to contribute a translation for Thai and Chinese that would be nothing short of awesome. We have gotten a lot of requests for a Chinese version actually, so I know you would make a lot of people (I think over a billion... too ambitious?) happy!
Mike
August 21, 2007 12:26 PM | Reply
So does '3Q' mean September 31, 2007? Are you on target? Or is this slipping to some time in 2008?
Byrne Reese
August 21, 2007 12:30 PM | Reply
I really hate committing to dates until I am 100% certain, but I can confidently say that MTOS will be released in 2007. It may not be released by September 2007 however. As of right now, October 2007 seems like a more realistic release date.
kat
August 26, 2007 5:58 PM | Reply
Does MT 4.0 use php 4, or php5? My hosting company will be no longer supporting php 4 at the end of the year, so I need to know if MT 4.0 uses php 4 or 5. Thanks.
Byrne Reese
August 26, 2007 7:52 PM | Reply
Movable Type should be completely compatible with PHP 5.
Matt Lee
August 30, 2007 8:54 AM | Reply
Folks,
When Movable Type is released under the GPL, you can do the following four things:-
One condition: If you give anyone a copy, they can do the same. That's it, in a nutshell.
You can take the code from the GPL version and make your own blogging product to compete with Movable Type, and sell copies of it. Run your own service like Typepad, etc.
As long as you don't take away anyone else's rights to do this, you're fine.
That's the spirit of the free software community and the GNU GPL.
Byrne Reese
August 30, 2007 11:19 AM | Reply
Yes. The MTOS software can be used for any purpose. I hear it makes a great air freshener.
Users of MTOS are free to make as much money as they want. They can host MT for friends and make a gazillion dollars.
Users of MTOS can give away and redistribute MTOS completely free of charge as long as they adhere to the restrictions of the GPL license under which we will distribute the software.
Can you create your own blogging product and compete with Movable Type?
Yes you can. That is not something I would hope happens. We have in fact worked hard to make the platform as extensible as possible so that there is incentive in selling plugins, or add-ons on top the platform. Plus, I think it is ultimately in everyone's best interest to maintain a single code base because it generally will lower your costs in trying maintain and keep up with the additions made to the core MTOS platform. But technically, you can compete with us, fork the software, do what ever you want. Just remember, you are still bound by the terms of the GPL. I strongly encourage you to read that license.
The only restriction that is independent of the software license is the use of any Six Apart trademark. If a fork were made, the Six Apart name as well as the Movable Type name cannot be used in association with the product you build. Trademarks are not governed by the GPL.
djseamus
September 6, 2007 7:12 AM | Reply
Byrne, you either very neatly sidestepped the questions about Joomla! or you replied in a very obtuse way. Can we have clarity please?
Byrne Reese
September 6, 2007 4:56 PM | Reply
@djseamus and the other folks who asked about Joomla - My apologies for not being clearer.
We currently have no plans about integrating with Joomla, but there are many community projects that people are trying to kick off, and perhaps Joomla should be one of them. I would be happy to lend my assistance directly to any one or any group of people seeking to integrate with and embrace the strengths of other platforms and products. That is the beauty of open source I suppose, that we empower the community to guide the fate of and the core feature set of Movable Type!
http://openid.aol.com/csnowdenmit
October 15, 2007 7:25 AM | Reply
What is happening with MTOS? Will it be available soon? Is October still the expected timeframe? Thanks
Erik Ogan
October 20, 2007 10:29 AM | Reply
I'm starting to suspect that the October time-frame was more of a "Well, it won't be next month, but it could be the month after" estimate. Of course, we have no other visibility into the process, for all I know there's a detailed schedule within SixApart. :)
(Count me as another community member waiting with bated breath for this release, and who looks forward to contributing features/plugins to MT's success!)
Wendy
October 24, 2007 7:26 AM | Reply
I use WordPress currently but have been frustrated with having to update it constantly is this something you think will happen a lot with movable type? And if so will it be as complicated to update as WordPress is?
Byrne Reese
October 25, 2007 11:13 AM | Reply
@Wendy - Good question. We get a lot of people asking about Movable Type and its upgrade process, and I want to assure you that the upgrade process is very simple, and very straight forward. We pride ourselves on having built a completely automated system for making necessary database changes. Plus, we have full time QA staff literally around the world whose job it is every time we release a new version of Movable Type to test the upgrade process for a number of different versions of Movable Type. They test the upgrade and then use the app make sure everything is copasetic.
But perhaps a more fundamental part of our development strategy is a focus on code quality and security to reduce as much as possible the need for upgrade to ensure that the code we do release is stable and secure.
Thanks for the question Wendy!
Vladimir Z
October 25, 2007 12:13 PM | Reply
Let me join people questioning about MTOS. Is there ANY new information regarding it? Feature set comparing to personal/commercial version? New time-frame?
Rottenchester
October 29, 2007 3:56 PM | Reply
OK, so the release date has pushed into Q4. Any other news?
Liz
October 30, 2007 12:41 PM | Reply
I would like to add my voice to the request for a comparison of the feature set of the open source version and the commercial version. How can we get that?
Chris Kelly
November 2, 2007 9:20 AM | Reply
Any update on the release timeline?
I'm interested in getting my hands on a checkout version for a new site.
and also add a "+1" to the feature set comparison.
Byrne Reese
November 2, 2007 9:31 AM | Reply
I know people are getting very anxious to have their questions answered, and I will do my best to explain and shed some light on our plans. While nothing is set in stone until we actually release something, this is our current thinking:
What will be MTOS will be available from subversion this month (November 2007) - actually MT 4.01 is available from svn now at code.sixapart.com/svn/movabletype/branches/athena
The first release of MTOS will then be in December to coincide with the release of the next version of MT.
The feature set of MTOS will be that of MT4.0. There will be no feature in MT4 that will be removed from MTOS.
Matt
November 6, 2007 12:54 AM | Reply
You mention that the feature set of MTOS will be that of MT4.0. Will it be possible to upgrade to version 4.01 to take advantage of the performance enhancements or do we need to wait until a new version of MTOS is released?
Byrne Reese
November 6, 2007 12:58 AM | Reply
We will never withhold performance and security enhancements from MTOS. So yes, the initial release of MTOS will have all the performance enhancements that the commercial version will have.
Sam Stigler
November 22, 2007 3:34 AM | Reply
Is there any update on when MTOS will be made available on SVN? (I take it that Athena isn't it?)
Rottenchester
December 6, 2007 9:40 AM | Reply
It's December now. Do you have a release date estimate? Thanks.
Byrne Reese
December 6, 2007 9:54 AM | Reply
It's imminent. Stay tuned.
http://openid.aol.com/theplasticmind
December 11, 2007 6:55 PM | Reply
Word on the street is that the new boomer code is up in the SVN. Like now.