Moveable Type, the software that runs this weblog, recently changed its license to a pay model. MT was never open source, but it’s always been good, reliable code with openness to developers. But now that it’s gone pay, and especially increased the license fee for having multiple users on a shared server, I’m contemplating a change.
I don’t blame the folks at Six Apart for needing to monetize MT — I think they should eat. However, I might be more inclined to pony up the bucks for an open source project… but that’s me.
mediageek is hosted on a non-profit community server. On Monday night there was a U-C IMC Tech meeting, which included some of the guys who make this server run. They asked if I was considering moving blogging platform, especially to something open source, since that’s the kind of software we tend to prefer.
My answer is that I’d like to, but don’t currently have the skills to do it alone. The Chambana.net geeks are very helpful, but I’d rather not call on their help unless we could make the new blogging software generally available to everyone who uses the server.
As I understand it, under Moveable Type’s new license, rolling out this blogging capability to other users of this server would cost from $199 to $599. It’s not a huge sum of money, but still a lot for a community server that focuses on offering good, reliable tech to all sorts of non-profit uses.
So, I am keeping my eyes open for good open source blog options. Luckily I noticed that Barry Parr over at MediaSavvy recently posted a quick overview of some major content management software/blog options, making my search a little easier.