Movable Type 4.2 Is one of the ‘most significant and important releases in Movable Type’s history’

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The folks over at SixApart have recently announced what might be some of the biggest changes in Movable Type‘s history. It certainly is making noise throughout the blogosphere. This release marks a significant change to SixApart’s license agreement as well. This is another attempt to persuade WordPress users to make the switch, but the features are so good that even I am considering installing a new blog on Movable Type. The gap between the CMSs in terms of functionality and usage is quickly closing up.

Features

SixApart is talking a good game here:

Today is one of the most exciting days in the history of Movable Type. Our community’s hard work has yielded one of the most significant and important releases in Movable Type’s history: Movable Type 4.2. This new release is the fastest and most secure release of Movable Type ever.

The new primary features included in Movable Type 4.2 are pretty significant:

  • Threaded comments
  • An out-of-the-box solution for comment spam
  • Live template previews
  • Paginated search results and entry pagination for dynamically published blogs
  • Redesigned template and widget management areas
  • Simple, simple, simple templates for quick and easy site customization

Developers get to have some fun as well:

  • Pluggable Search Backend – we have worked hard to make Movable Type’s search infrastructure faster, but we realize that some may want to swap it out with a home grown or more powerful search engine. MT 4.2 makes that possible.
  • Extensible Search – by default Movable Type searches page and entries, but some users may want assets, comments, TrackBacks, users, or their own custom data types to appear in search results. MT 4.2 makes that possible through very simple, YAML-based plugins.
  • OpenID 2.0 Support – Movable Type now fully supports OpenID 2.0, being among the only to support it right out of the box.
  • Bundled OAuth Libraries – we recognize that open standards like OpenID and OAuth will become the underpinnings of technologies to comes, which is why we have bundled OAuth libraries into the core of Movable Type to make building plugins and applications that rely upon these technologies easier.
  • Fully documented core template tags – a little overdue, we will be the first to admit, but all of the core template tags have been fully documented.
  • Performance optimization tools – our performance logging framework can be used by developers to hone in on parts of their code that can be optimized.

Another announcement from SixApart is that they are releasing a Pro version of Movable Type called Movable Type Pro. It gives users full access to the platform: unlimited blogs, unlimited authors, unlimited community members, and “unlimited everything.”

The great thing about this is that the licenses are available for free to anyone who is “not running an official business.” I don’t really know how that truly translates to legal terms, but the blog has said that if you are attempting to make money with a blog, it is fine to use. Kudos to SixApart for making that clear.

Reactions

Within 24 hours of the Movable Type 4.2 release, The Movable Type team announced that the feedback has been “wonderful!”

Now, I know many of you will be thinking: “Hmm, hasn’t WordPress already had many of these features for awhile now?” Yes—in most cases—you would be correct. However, the point is that as Movable Type closes the gap, the competition heats up. This, in turn, causes more improvements to be made as developers try to out due the competition. In the end, the people who use these products benefit.

Anyways, it is nice to see Movable Type and SixApart bringing the competition to WordPress. I’m a strong believer that competition is good—there are many ways in which WordPress could be challenged to improve itself further. I am also glad to see Movable Type improving as well.

I am hoping that the install is a little bit easier this time around. (Movable Type does not like my VPS server for some reason that I can’t figure out.)

I might give Movable Type 4.2 an in-depth review in the near future—keep a look out for it.

For now, you can check it out Movable Type 4.2—for free—at Movable Type.org.

If you are using the Movable Type CMS, share your thoughts about the new release!

7 thoughts on “Movable Type 4.2 Is one of the ‘most significant and important releases in Movable Type’s history’

  1. But ultimately, I have to disagree with one of your introductory statements; We don’t make great software so that people will switch from another platform. We make great software so that people will make great sites. I mean, we’ve been thrilled to welcome all kinds of new people to our community, or to welcome them back, and we do hope everyone who is starting a new site or another site will put MT at the top of the list of platforms they consider.

    That was the largest amount of marketing crap I have seen for quite awhile. Oh well, what can you expect from the VP of SixApart. Nice try though.

  2. I would point out that yes, it’s been *possible* to do a lot of these things with MT, or WordPress, or even other platforms for a while. The difference here is that you’re not chasing down half a dozen different plugins from a bunch of different authors, and then trying to connect them all together. And, it’s worth pointing out, MT has always been miles ahead in managing multiple blogs and keeping your whole install secure to avoid getting hacked.

    But ultimately, I have to disagree with one of your introductory statements; We don’t make great software so that people will switch from another platform. We make great software so that people will make great sites. I mean, we’ve been thrilled to welcome all kinds of new people to our community, or to welcome them back, and we do hope everyone who is starting a new site or another site will put MT at the top of the list of platforms they consider. But the ideas we talk about, and the motivations for our whole community in working on these tools, aren’t about some petty competition, even if there are childish attempts by some to turn the whole thing into a pissing match.

    Frankly, web communities deserve better than that.

  3. Movable Type is getting better and better. I can imagine that this will be its biggest release ever because of all the hype. However, if there is too much hype about it then it might be a letdown if it’s not as good as we thought.

  4. licenses are available for free to anyone who is “not running an official business.” I don’t really know how that truly translates to legal terms

    No translation; it’s literal. To be considered a business, you’d need to be formally filed as such. Byrne’s started a forum thread specifically to address this, as it’s been a common question. If you need any further detail, I’d suggest asking over there.

  5. Nice write up James. I think this release has finally convinced me to at least download MT and install it on my local server just to go through the process and check it out. I’m also getting in the mood to install Habari on my local server as well as I’ve heard many good things about their platform and they are only at version 0.5

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