Happy Birthday Movable Type!

Do you know what's special about October 8th? October 8th is Movable Type's birthday! 11 years ago, on October 8th, 2001, Movable Type version 1 was released. Since then, thanks to the use and feedback from users of Movable Type for blog and website management, Movable Type has evolved into the form it is today. Your continued feedback and support through advice, praise and critique will ensure that Movable Type will continue evolving over the next 11 years. We appreciate every one's help and we definitely could not have come this far without you!

As part of the celebration, let's see how Movable Type has changed over the past 11 years by comparing Movable Type administration screen screen shots!

Movable Type 1.x

The first version of Movable Type was released October 8th, 2001. This was just after the not to be forgotten September 11 attacks and many Americans were still in shock. Many people wanted to talk about what was happening in the world to better understand the situation and come to grips with the new future. For whatever reason, people were drawn in to Movable Type and what it could do, and the download and use of the software spread like wildfire, eventually leading to a widespread blogging movement, with "Blogger" being another big name and blogging revolutionary.

Original release articles for Movable Type still exist on MovableType.com. On MovableType.com, articles around the first release still remains. Reading over the first couple of entries, it is obvious that Mena and Ben, the original developers, were caught unawares by how well known Movable Type became over such a period of time.

Movable Type 2.x

Movable Type version 2 was released in March, 2002. The most notable addition to version 2 was the implementation of the Trackback function. (Although actually, trackback functions weren't made available until version 2.2.) By using trackback, bloggers could exchange their opinions and start discussions with one another.

From version 2.5, internationalization options were added. As people from all over the world, not just English speaking countries, were interested in blogging using the Movable Type software, language packs for major languages around the world were created and made available to the public.

Movable Type 3.x

Movable Type version 3 was released in May 2004. At that time, public recognition of the word "blog" had soared, and Internet service companies started creating their own original blogging services.

The phrase "business blog" was also born at this time. Companies started to use blogs for PR purposes, this in turn helping to make communication between businesses and consumers easier than before and more direct.

Movable Type 4.x

Movable Type 4 was released in August, 2007. At this point, six years had passed since the original release of Version 1. MT4 featured the first radical change to the Movable Type administration screen. Site navigation was changed from a vertical to horizontal layout, and the navigation bar itself was now black.

MT4 also introduced several new functions, one of which was the new ability to create web pages from within Movable Type. Other features included the inclusion of hour and minute time records for published blog entries as well as hierarchical blog entry organization.

Multiblog, a function of aggregating data over multiple blogs, was introduced, and template tags were enhanced, offering support for functions such as four arithmetic operations and conditional branching.

The ability to create and include custom fields became available from version 4.1. This function helped further define Movable Type as scalable CMS software.

Movable Type 5.x

The Japanese engineering team started leading the development of Movable Type from MT version 5, which was released in January, 2010.

MT5 introduced the Website function. By using both the Website and Blog functions, users could easily create, manage and maintain entire websites. The Theme function was also introduced, and custom field functions were further enhanced.

In version 5.1, the Listing framework, enabling users to easily sort through large amounts of data, was implemented. In version 5.2, a TinyMCE based rich text editor was introduced in order to help users create and edit blog entries.

And now we are back to the present! So, how did you like that blast from the past? As you can tell just by glancing through the screen shots, Movable Type has changed a lot from its humble beginnings. However, throughout all the years, one thing remains the same: Movable Type will never stop evolving in order to make your user experience better!

In closing, I'd like to know...what was the first version of Movable Type that you used? Do you have any fond memories of Movable Type from over the years?

Happy birthday, Movable Type!