Welcome to MTOS: the Movable Type Open Source Project (archived page)
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.
28 Comments
Byrne Reese
Byrne Reese was previously the Product Manager of Movable Type at Six Apart, where he had also held positions as the Manager of Platform Technology and Product Manager for TypePad. Byrne is a huge supporter of the Movable Type user and developer community. He dedicates much of his time to promoting and educating people about Movable Type as well as building the tools and plugins for Movable Type that are showcased on Majordojo. He contributes regularly to open source; and he is an advocate for open protocols and standards like Atom and OpenID.
Terry Heath on June 16, 2007, 9:31 a.m. 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 on June 16, 2007, 10:12 a.m. 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 on June 19, 2007, 5:28 p.m. 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 on June 25, 2007, 6:11 p.m. Reply
Will the open source version has any migration scripts ?
Thanks;
Byrne Reese on July 10, 2007, 12:02 p.m. 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 on July 20, 2007, 10:26 a.m. Reply
This is the thing that the MT Community really needed
anonymous on July 25, 2007, 4:37 a.m. 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 on July 28, 2007, 11:10 a.m. 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 on August 15, 2007, 4:46 a.m. 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 on August 15, 2007, 11:31 a.m. 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 on August 15, 2007, 4:53 p.m. 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 on August 16, 2007, 7:51 a.m. 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
Smitthi on August 17, 2007, 2:08 p.m. 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
Mike on August 21, 2007, 12:26 p.m. Reply
So does ‘3Q’ mean September 31, 2007? Are you on target? Or is this slipping to some time in 2008?
kat on August 26, 2007, 5:58 p.m. 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.
Matt Lee on August 30, 2007, 8:54 a.m. 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.
djseamus on September 6, 2007, 7:12 a.m. Reply
Byrne, you either very neatly sidestepped the questions about Joomla! or you replied in a very obtuse way. Can we have clarity please?
http://openid.aol.com/csnowdenmit on October 15, 2007, 7:25 a.m. Reply
What is happening with MTOS? Will it be available soon? Is October still the expected timeframe? Thanks
grettir on October 20, 2007, 10:29 a.m. 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 on October 24, 2007, 7:26 a.m. 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?
Vladimir Z on October 25, 2007, 12:13 p.m. 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 on October 29, 2007, 3:56 p.m. Reply
OK, so the release date has pushed into Q4. Any other news?
Liz on October 30, 2007, 12:41 p.m. 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 on November 2, 2007, 9:20 a.m. 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.
Matt on November 6, 2007, 12:54 a.m. 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?
Sam Stigler on November 22, 2007, 3:34 a.m. Reply
Is there any update on when MTOS will be made available on SVN? (I take it that Athena isn’t it?)
Rottenchester on December 6, 2007, 9:40 a.m. Reply
It’s December now. Do you have a release date estimate? Thanks.
http://openid.aol.com/theplasticmind on December 11, 2007, 6:55 p.m. Reply
Word on the street is that the new boomer code is up in the SVN. Like now.