Hello, I'm Hari Shanker. I'm a communitydeputy with the WordPress community team.
Today I'm here to take a workshop on thetopic introduction to open source. In
this lesson, we will learn about a hostof topics related to open source, which
include the meaning of the term opensource when referring to software. What
the GPL software license provides, whyWordPress is an open source software,
and how it is important for the users ofWordPress, as well as the contributors
to WordPress. And finally, for those ofyou who are not very familiar with
WordPress, I will also show youdifferent ways in which WordPress can be
utilized. So, let's start. I hope you'reall set for an exciting session on what
open source entails and what WordPressentails. Let's dive in. Let's start by
finding out the definition of opensource software. Simply put, open source
software is software whose source codeis available for anyone to view, modify,
and enhance. Source Code refers tocomputer instructions that are written
by software developers in a programminglanguage to manipulate the way software
works. So any and all software in theworld requires source code. Now, most
proprietary software is disputed in theform of executable files, where the
source code has been compiled in such away that it is encrypted for computer
use. What does this mean? It means thatyou as a user who is using this
proprietary software will not be able tofind out at source code. Now, if the
software has a source code that isavailable without compiling, and without
encrypting, and that it would, and thatit would be possible for you as a user
to study and modify the program. That iswhat open source software provides the
ability to read and modify the codebehind the software. So to summarize,
proprietary software is encrypted. It'sbuilt with a programming language, but
the code is encrypted, it is compiled.So you will not be able to as a user,
you will not be able to view its sourcecode. But on the contrary, open source
software, you can view all the sourcecode of the open source software, you
should be able to study how the softwareworks. And you should even be able to
modify the functionality of an opensource software. But on the other hand,
when it comes to proprietary software,you will not be able to modify how the
provider is after works. I hope youunderstood the difference between free
software and open source software. Soopen source software essentially gives
you the freedom to modify the softwareto view the source code. It's amazing,
right? Alright, so let's move on to thenext section, which is the definition of
free software.
What is free software. As the name says,free software is not simply software for
which there is no charge. I hope Ididn't confuse you when I said that. But
I repeat. Free Software is not simplysoftware for which there is no charge.
It's a little different. We'll get tothat. Now before we go to that I would
like to talk to you about freeware,which is a term that is generally used
to describe a software without a cost.Free Software is much more than that. It
essentially gives you the user thefreedom to share the study to modify it.
Now, there's a there's a quote from FreeSoftware Foundation which says which
basically defines what free software isand I quote, free software is software
that gives you the user the freedom toshare, to study and to modify, we call
this free use software before becausethe user is free. So what is the
difference between a free softwareproject or a free our free software
application and a freeware application.So a proprietary software application
could be free, because you can downloadfrom the internet for free you will need
you will not need to pay any money forit. But you will not be able to
understand that source code you will notbe able to read it so of course all
source code you will not be able tomodify it However, when it comes to free
software, you can not only download itfor free, you can read its source code,
you can understand how it works, you canmodify it, and you can distribute it. So
that is the difference between freesoftware and free software. Just because
the software can be downloaded from theinternet for free, doesn't mean it's
free software, it could be free. But ifit truly needs to be free software, you
should be able to understand sourcecode, read it source code, you should be
able to modify it. I'd like to, I'd liketo borrow code from Richard Stallman,
who is one of the pioneers of the freesoftware world. And I quote, free
software as a matter of liberty, notprice. To understand the concept, you
should think of free as in free speech,not as in free beer. What a powerful
code. What Stallman essentially means isthat, when you use free software, you
get the freedom to use it, to modify it,to change it in any way that you can. It
basically sets you free, as in freedomof thought. But then you use a freeware
a proprietary software that's free. It'snot very different from free beer.
Alright, so I've mentioned what freesoftware is, let's move on to understand
what exactly makes a software free. FreeSoftware complies to four essential
freedoms, the freedom to use, to studyto modify and distribute software for
any purpose without any legal restraint.So a program is free software if the
program uses have these four essentialfreedoms. Coming back to Richard
Stallman, who's a founder of the FreeSoftware Foundation. The Free Software
Foundation has essentially described ordefined these four rules, and I'd like
to code them so that you have a betterunderstanding of what free software
actually means. The first freedom is thefreedom to run the software as you wish
for any purpose. This is called afreedom zero. The second freedom is the
freedom to study how the program worksand change it so that it does computing
as you wish this is called the secondfreedom or freedom one. Now, in order to
for any software to accomplish thisfreedom, its access to source code is
mandatory. So if you find a software,and if you want to make sure that it
meets the freedom one, you should beable to read it source code freely, you
should be able to modify source code.That is freedom one or the second
freedom. Moving on to the third theme,it is the freedom to distribute or
redistribute copies so that you can helpyour neighbor This is called the freedom
to so the software that you download it,you should be able to distribute it to
others as you choose. This is also oneof the major prerequisites of free
software.
What is the fourth freedom, we'vediscussed the first three freedoms. The
fourth freedom is the freedom todistribute copies of your modified
versions to others. So the thirdfreedoms speaks of being able to
distribute copies so that you can helpyour neighbor, it's not just restricted
to that, you should be able to modifythe software in any way that you want.
And then you should be able todistribute it to anybody. So by doing
this, you can give the whole community achance to benefit from the changes. Now,
for the fourth freedom, also, access tothe source code is a precondition. So I
hope I've explained to you what freesoftware is. Now, you would have heard
of the term open source and you'd havedefinitely heard the term the term free
software, are both of them the same? Arethere any differences between open
source and free software? Let's findout. So open source software is
categorized by the public accessibilityof its code. Where free software focuses
on the capabilities for using andsharing the software. Now to explain
open source software. The main featureof open source software is that its code
should be publicly accessible. That'swhat that's what the focus is. But for
free software, the focus is on using andsharing the software. Now, these terms
have a lot of overlap as you can see,but they are not interchangeable. The
capabilities and conditions go intosoftware depends upon the particular
software licensing and there arevariations on the licenses use for open
source and free software. Soessentially, there are overlaps but both
the movements are entirely different. Sothere are some additional terms that can
be used for these overlapping ideologiesfor software products. So the two most
popular terms are FOSS, which is freeand open source software, or floss,
which is free slash liberal slash opensource software. Let's move on to the
history of open source. We're talkingabout open source, so we should
definitely know about its history. Weshould go back to the 1950s to discuss
this. So way back in the 50s, frillyshirts afterwards distributed among
computer scientists working in Academy.This is when computers were very
rudimentary, they didn't have a lot offeatures. So software was not really
envisioned as a paid product. However,with time, computer systems became more
complex and software development becamemore costly. And the world saw a market
for computing products expanding moreand more people started using computers
in their day to day lives. And by the1960s. companies, companies were making
computers and shipping them to users. Sothese computer companies, what they did
was often to bundle software products,with software required to operate them
and soul and to sell them together. Soif you buy a computer, you will need to
buy separate software, or to run them orsometimes both the both the software
will be bundled together. So that's whensoftware's actually got a price
rational. Moving on to the 80s, thisexpanded. And the major change was that
personal computers had started to comein. So back in the 60s, computers were
mainly used by enterprises. But by the1980s, the personal computer movement
had really, really expanded. So thisresulted in the formation of corporate
networks. And it also resulted in theincrease of prices associated with
proprietary software. Going back by the1980s, software became proprietary. So
if you look at the 1950s, software wasfree. But by the 1980s software had
become a commodity and people realizedthat they couldn't make money out of it.
So proprietary software was born bydefault. And prices were associated with
it and the prices were rising in the1980s. It God was proprietary software
were often locked in vendors. So theterm vendor lock in came in, which meant
that you could only use a particularsoftware with your hardware. So if you
purchased your your computer fromCompany A, you will only be able to use
software's B, C and D not x, y and z.Now, this obviously costs a lot of your,
in the computing community,
a lot of movements and much in reactionto the constraints of proprietary
software. And as a result, in 1984, theG a new or the new project was launched
to create a computer operating systemthat will be free from the constraints
of its source good, compliant to thefour freedoms. Now, when new was born,
that was when the General Public Licensewas created as an alternative software
license for the gn GNU project. Now I'vebeen I've been saying this quantum gn UT
and knew for a long time what does itreally mean? 10 years and a quantum that
says news not Unix. Did you get it? It'sIt's It's a recursive joke. It's a
recurrent because of the chronic was sogenius. Genuine just means news, not
Unix. The governing principles for theopen source development were outlined by
a person called Eric Raymond, who is apioneer in the open source world. And
one of the founding members of the OpenSource Initiative in his 1999 book
called The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Sothis book was an extension of his essay
of the same title as the name of boththe book and the essay suggests, Raymond
compares two models software governmentso that he talks about the cathedral
model and the bazaar model. Talkingabout the cathedral model, how does the
cathedral look like? It's a closed spacewhere a select group of people
congregate. So the cathedral model ofsoftware development is very similar. So
in the cathedral model, code isdeveloped between releases restricted to
an exclusive group of softwaredevelopers. Now, if you look at the
cathedral model, this is the same modelfollowed by most proprietary software.
drip platforms. So software is built andreleased by a select group of
individuals. They make all the decisionsabout the software they developed
software from from scratch, they testit, they release it, they add features.
So the entire development softwaredevelopment lifecycle is restricted to
that select group of people. Mostproprietary software still relies on
this cathedral model. Now, the bazaarmodel is an exact opposite to the
cathedral model. To talk about thebizarre morn, let's imagine a mental
model of a bizarre. so bizarre is amarket. It's a huge market with lots of
shops, lots of people. So the bazaar isessentially governed by people. Right.
So it's a it's a congregation of a largeamount of people. So people are there to
buy stuff from merchants that are sevenmutton selling stuff. So in the bizarre
model, code is developed over theinternet with public access. As an
example, the Linux kernel project, whichis led by Linus Torvalds. It's one of
the most popular projects in the bazaarmodel. So in this case, the code belongs
to the people. So that's what that'swhat the power of the bazaar model is.
Now, I'm going to ask you a question.Which model is open source software for
the arts, it goes without saying it's abizarre model. Because the code is
developed over the internet, the bazaaris the internet, in this case with
public access, and contributors are liveall across the world to contribute to
this to an open source project. Now, thekey key takeaway from this book, which
is an important one, and if you areinterested in the open source movement,
I would totally recommend that you go toread. The key takeaway from that book is
this quote, which is also called theLena says love. The code says, given
enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.So the public availability of source
code makes it possible for a wider groupof contributors to detect and correct
software problems. So let's look at thecathedral model. In the cathedral model,
there's a bug. But the software is onlybuilt and tested by a select group of
people. It's not tested by a large groupof people. But in the bizarre model,
there are 1000s there are hundreds orperhaps 1000s of people
that not only use the code, but alsotest it at the same time. So there's a
lot of eyeballs on the on the on thecode at any given point in time. So bugs
are easy to find decisions can be madeabout fixing the bugs and the overall
quality of the software improves. Nowmoving on to the open source software,
the term open source software wasessentially coined in 1998, when
Netscape read the source code from hisfirst web browser, the Netscape
Navigator, in hopes of enhancing it byproviding access to the code to more
people, so that they can locate and fixbugs. So that is when open source, the
term open source was, was formally born.The term free software has been going on
for a while because there was an x whichcame out in the 90s, I believe, or in
the 80s. My history is wrong. So theNetscape Navigator release became
extremely popular. The release garnereda lot of attention for the open source
development process. Today, some of theworld's most popular applications are
open source software. That includesAndroid, Mozilla Firefox, Libre Office,
git, and WordPress, of course. So it'snot just that open source has grown far
and far beyond this. And perhaps thebiggest success to the open source
project is Microsoft themselves saidopening it. So Microsoft was famously
against open source in in the 90s. Therewas a, there was a former CEO of
Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, who made avery, very famous quote, which said,
open source is the cancer of the world,something along those lines. So from
that Microsoft these days is one of thebiggest open source contributors in the
world. And other companies are followingsuit. Open source is really succeeding
in the 2020. So with all that said, Whydo we need to choose Open Source? I've
explained a lot about the benefits ofopen source I've explained about how
different companies that are adoptingit. I've spoken about many ice boxes
shallow But as an end user, as adeveloper or as a business manager, why
should you consider whether or not touse open source software? Now, I'm not
stating that open source software issuperior from proprietary software. I
mean, there are key differences betweenboth. That could be situations where
proprietary software is better, or therecould be situations where open source is
better. Now, let's explain let's let'ssee, let's evaluate why open source is
superior option could be a better optionfor you, when you work on a particular
project. The first thing, the mostobvious reason is that there is
typically very little cost. So in mostcases, open source software is free. So
I spoke earlier about the intersectionsbetween open source and free software.
And there's a lot of intersectionbetween both as I mentioned, so most of
the cases, the most of the open sourceprojects are free, most of the open
source software projects are free. Insome cases, there could be a small
distribution fee. But apart from that,but when you compare that to providing
software, which in some cases could costas much as millions of dollars, the open
source alternative is almost always freeor cheap. So, as a as a person that
makes decisions for a company, youshould definitely go for open source
software, if cost is concerned. That isthe first thing. The second thing is
that the second point which makes opensource software special is that there is
no contractual license. Instead, thelicense outlines rules for sharing. So
essentially, when you want when you buya proprietary software, you would
normally have to sign a license thatthere would be a license associated with
it, which restricts you from using thesoftware in any way that you want.
However, in case of the open sourcesoftware, there is typically a license
like the GPL, or an MIT license, whichoffers you the four freedoms. So
actually, the license that you get withopen source software, outlines rules for
sharing. You see how it's beneficial. Sodefinitely, that is one of the major
advantages of open source software. Andthe third one is open source software is
customizable. And there is almost alwayspublic forums and documentation that
support it. So with many eyes, bugs areshallow.
Any open source software project iswritten and developed by a community, a
large community which is spread outacross the world, it's not sprout. It's
not based out of the United States ofEurope, it is spread out across the
world. So there are public forums andthere are documentation to support it.
If you have any questions or if you runinto any roadblocks, there is probably a
documentation page which addresses it,or there is probably a public forum
post, which addresses it. Or worse, youcould ask a question in a forum and you
will get an answer from somebody who'san expert in that. So that is, again,
one of the biggest advantages of opensource software. The fourth advantage is
that there is no vendor lock in forcustomization, or bug fixes. So it's,
it's evident that even open sourcesoftware would have bugs. And obviously,
you need to customize open sourcesoftware to add on to your features.
Depending on how complex yourrequirements are, there is no lock in at
all You can you can choose to modify thesoftware in any way that you want, you
can fix if you find bugs, you canactually fix it and you can actually
deploy to the software, can you do thiswith the proprietary software. So the
practice of there might lock you in fromdifferent customization requirements. So
if you want to add some features, youwill not be able to do it. Even if you
reach out to your software provider,they might prevent you from doing it,
there might be a clause in the contract,which prevents you from doing it. And,
and if there's a bug, you might need towait on the developers of the software
to fix it. So there are a lot ofrestrictions. But in case of open source
software, you already have the code. Soeven in case the the original developer
or development team, they they have adelay in fixing the bugs you can you
yourself can dive in and fix those bugs.And the other and the fifth advantage of
open source software is that abandonedsoftware projects can be adopted by new
development teams. So if a softwareproject is abandoned, you In theory, can
adopt a project and you can work on it.Right. So if it's a proprietary software
and if it's abandoned, and if you'reusing it if your company's entirely line
on the primary software, you will haveto dispose it off but when but in case
of an open source software, you canbasically take over the software and you
can develop on it. This has been thishas happened so many times in the open
source community, especially in theWordPress world. We'll get to that later
during the session. And moving on. Theother advantage is that open standards
are typically in Rather than proprietarystandards. So the different standards
first off the product. So most opensource software adopt open standards
rather than proprietary standards, whichadd a lot of restrictions. So that makes
open to software easier to use. Andfinally, and most importantly, bugs and
security issues can quickly be fixedwith software patches. So, open source
software has open source code, which youcan read understand, and you can use it
to identify security issues, and you canquickly create a patch to fix it. But in
case of a proprietary software, this maynot be very easy, you may have a lot of
restrictions, including contractualrestrictions. So even if you identify a
security issue and the port is thecompany, the company will take its own
sweet time to fix it, which may notreally work well with your business
needs. So but that's when open sourcesoftware has really advantages because
you should be able to identify anyproblems and you if you have the
bandwidth can fix it, or maybe you canget support from the community to fix
it. The options are a lot more. So Ihope all of these have explained to you
what open source software is and whatits benefits are. Let's move on to the
next section to learn more about the GPLlicense. The GPL stands for GNU General
Public License. Some people call it thecopyleft license in contrast to
copyright. This is because it flips theterms of the copyright on the software.
So rather than restricting distribution,the GPL copyright is used to specify the
ownership of the source code and theterms upon which it may be shared. The
GPL was created by Richard Stallman in1989 and is the founding license for
open source software. Its goal is toprotect the four fundamental freedoms
that are considered the underpinnings offree software. So if a derivative of a
free of a GPL license software isredistributed in its original or
modified form, it needs to be licensedunder the GPL. Otherwise the license to
use the program will terminate it and itwould breach the terms of usage. This
makes it possible to fork
an open source project into a newproject. As long as the GNU project is
under the same license. They've beenfree versions of GPL over time. GPL v2
or later from the Free SoftwareFoundation is the license that WordPress
software is on.
How does open source apply to WordPress?So WordPress is an open source free
software distributed under the GPLlicense. WordPress began as a successor
of Fork of the abandoned B to cafe locksoftware project as Matt Mullenweg first
pondered in 2003 post called theblogging software dilemma. So Matt, as
you all know, is the co founder ofWordPress along with Mike little later
that year, both of them collaborated tolaunch the software called wordpress.
ma.tt later posted a blog post calledWordPress, and then launched the
original release of wordpress.org withthe post WordPress now available. Since
then, it has grown to be the largestself hosted blogging tool in the world,
used on millions of sites and seen by10s of millions of people every day. As
of now, as of time of recording thisvideo, which is in August 2020,
WordPress was more than 37% of theInternet. The official WordPress about
page says everything you see here fromthe documentation to the code itself was
created by and for the community.WordPress is an open source project,
which means that there are hundreds ofpeople all over the world working on it
more than most commercial platforms. Italso means that you're free to use it
for anything from a recipe site to afortune 500 website without paying
anyone a license fee and a number ofother important freedoms. In addition to
the GPL applying to the open source codeof WordPress, all related software on
wordpress.org in the plugins directoryand the themes to re and the Block
Directory must be licensed under the GPLor a compatible license as they are
considered to be derivatives of thesoftware. Now according to the software
freedom Law Center, they are the readersof WordPress, because every part of them
is determined by the content of theWordPress function see call. As workshop
works of authorship they are designedonly to be combined with what Press into
a larger work. This is from post calledthemes that GPL to. While WordPress
plugins and themes must comply with theGPL license, they may still offer
premium versions for a fee. Althoughthose cannot be sold through
wordpress.org directories, this mightseem a little confusing at first, but it
opens a broader freedom for users on howto customize what software. And it
allows for a third party commercialmarketplace to collaborate and combined
free software with paid services.Essentially, GPL licensing for WordPress
is very analogous to the four freedomsthat I mentioned at the beginning of the
session. But apart from the fourfreedoms, there are a few more things
that you should keep in mind. Agreedthose four freedoms are at the root of
what GPL is. But the GPL is a littlemore than that. So in the next section,
I will try to analyze all the featuresof GPL and how its implications are in
the WordPress world. I also tried toanswer some of the major questions that
we've heard people ask again and againover the years, and I'll try to address
those questions. So the most importantfreedom of GPL is the freedom to copy
and distribute the Program. The onlycatch is that all the licenses, all the
copyrights that come with the programshould be intact. So, if you make if you
make changes to the WordPress software,if you make changes to a GPL plugin or
GPL theme or GPL block, and if youwanted these redistributed, you should
provide all the licenses that came withthe existing program as such. The second
point is that you can charge a fee forproviding the copy, if you wish, yes,
that is definitely permissible. However,it should still be completely TPO
compliant. Third point is that you canmodify and distribute the Program, but
your modifications will inherit GPL. Soyou can make changes to the program and
you can redistribute it, but as long asyou have the licenses intact, your
modifications will automatically inheritthe GPL. The fourth point is that
downstream recipients of the program ormodifications will inherit the license
but further restrictions can not beimposed, which means that the more and
more changes that you make to the to theto the software and the more and more
you distributed, the license will stillbe intact. However, you cannot add
further restrictions to the license.Now, you will you will lose your GPL
license if you copy, modify, sublicenseor distribute the Program other than
permitted. So
if you infringe the GPL, like an examplefor this would be you copy GPL code and
you you remove all of the all GPL kindof men, then you add a restricted
license and then you basically try todistribute the GPL that is a violation
of the GPL. And it means that your GPLrights get terminated. Now, based on
what we've discussed so far, what arethe highlights of GPL for WordPress. So
the biggest way GPL protects everybodythat uses WordPress is by controlling
the distribution of derivative orcollective works, along with the core
work itself, which is in this case,WordPress, and not to contest the rights
of others. So anybody that writessoftware for WordPress or contributes to
WordPress, they retain the intellectualproperty of the code that they've
written. And if the product isdistributed as with GPL, the fact that
these are the authors that will remainwith the software. However, the software
continues to be freely distributed. Soit means that anybody who is writing
software for WordPress or writingsoftware for the GPL licensed product,
they they have the intellectual propertycontrol, they own the copyrights but the
product can still be distributed, theycan still be modified modified. That is
the beauty of GPL. Now, the other pointis that if identifiable sections of the
modified work are not derived fromprogram, they can be considered
independent and separate works initself. So this applies in cases where a
part of any WordPress software or a GPLlicense software is used to create
independent software. So if it's a smallline of code, which is reused for
another purpose, and if it's notspecifically identifiable, and if it's
not, if it's not derived from programand it is used to create a separate
program, so this this, the modified workcan be set considered separate in
itself. That is one thing to keep inmind. Now, the other point is that when
you distribute the same sections as awhole work based on the Program, then
the distribution of the whole must be onGPL terms. In short, if you use a
significant section of GPL licenseprogram, which could be a theme if
you're using a specific code from aWordPress theme or whatever, it's what
is plugin our WordPress blog. If you'reusing that to create your own software,
which is very significant, then thesoftware that you use should be under a
GPL license. The last and the finalpoint is that aggregation of another
work, not based on the program with theprogram does not bring the other work
under the scope of the GPL. So thismeans that if you use g if you if you
supply a pack of software, like one GPLlicensed product along with a few other
GPL licensed products in a singlebundle, then the whole bundle does not
become GPL. But your product will willremain GPL. But when you clump a non GPL
product with your GPL products, thebundle does not become GPL. This is
something to keep in mind. Would that bemove on to the next section? As I
mentioned earlier, people have a lot ofquestions on the GPL. So let's try to
get let's try to answer some of thesequestions that people have on GPL. So
the first question is self explanatory.Is everything a theme, a blog or even
the WordPress core? I don't even knowwhat was plugin? If I do see somebody
does that, should the source code ofthose edits be released in public? Nope,
it's not required on the GPL. That's theanswer. The reason behind this is that
the GPL allows the freedom to modify thesoftware. It does not make it mandatory
to share the changes that you make. Youcan create software in your own
requirements you can create, you canmodify software, you can edit software,
as much as you want. However, it is notrequired by GPL to share it if you want
you can. The GPL allows you to freedomto do that, but it's not mandatory. The
other question is, is selling WordPresssoftware for a fee GPL compliant? The
answer is yes. WordPress is a softwarethat is available for free and as I
mentioned earlier GPL allows you todistribute software for a fee. However,
it is a pointless exercise because whatis already available for
free@wordpress.org. So when a softwareis available for free, what is the point
in distributing it for a fee? Nextquestion, can I sell my GPL licensed
WordPress plugins themes blocks or otherderivatives from from my site for a fee?
Yes, as mentioned earlier, the GPLlicense allows for distribution of
WordPress products for a fee. However,anybody that abstains a copy from you by
paying a fee is entitled to release itto anyone else, for free, or for a fee.
That's the beauty of GPL. So if youwant, you can buy you can purchase
software, a GPL license software for afee, and but use you have the freedom to
distribute it to anybody for a fee orfor free, as much as you want. This is
one of the most common questions that wereceive that we keep hearing again, and
again, I'm out the WordPress license andthe GPL. Can I resell GPL licensed
WordPress plugins or themes that I'vepurchased from elsewhere on my site for
a fee? Going by the GPL license, yes, itis definitely permitted. And that is
definitely something that you can do.However, as users, you should think
twice about the ethics of suchdecisions. There are also several other
challenges, such as if you purchase aplugin from a third party site, it may
not always be saved as in you may youmay lose access to updates, because in
many cases when plugins or themes aresold, the cost involves the cost
essentially allows for distribution,which means updates along with support.
So the the amount that you pay forupdates and support. So when you when
you get a third party, when you get apaid plugin or a paid theme or a paid
block for free, you may not get accessto support you may not get access to
updates. But that those are entirelyseparate from the GPL license. We are
talking about the GPL license right now,as per the license. Yes, you are allowed
to do so you are definitely free todistribute it as much as you want. As a
commercial plugin developer developing,disputing a GPL license program, am I
obliged to make my wordpresser rate ofTimo plugin available to a member of the
public for free? No, you are notrequired to do that. So this is one of
the biggest confusions amongstdevelopers working on WordPress
software. You need not there is no GPLdoes not necessarily say that you should
you should make your work available forfree. You can make your work available
on a payment basis if you want to theGPL In fact, allow for the DGP and
allows you to charge a distribution fee.You can also charge for support and
updates. So that is that's definitely afreedom of the GPL that you can make use
of. So it's not really required. But ifyou want that's a good thing. It allows
more People do use it people who may nothave the capability to pay for it, they
definitely have an option to do. So it'sentirely entirely up to you. You can
release a paid product with a GPLlicense, which is completely within the
license. Can I modify a GPL license towhat Chris said we'd have like a plugin
or theme or block and release it as acommercial product with a non GPL
license. Short answer, this is aviolation of the GPL license. That's
because if you take a part of asoftware, or a product that is licensed
with the GPL, and if you try to releaseit long with a non GPL product, that is
a blatant violation of the GPL. So ifyou want to do it when you take a part
of the GPL code, and if you add it toany product, basically, so it should
inherit the GPL. That's the downwardlicensing part of the GPL clause. So
essentially, if you want to take a pieceof GPL code, and if you want to release
it, along with another software, thatshould be a GPL software, you cannot
release it as a non GPL software as thatwould be a termination violation of the
GPL license. What can I do, if I knowthat a plugin or theme or block
developer is violating the GPL. As wediscussed earlier, all WordPress
derivatives inherit the GPL license.This is one of the core tenets of the
GPL philosophy. So if you realize that aleading plugin or theme or a developer
is violating the GPL, the first thingthat you can do is to raise it with the
developer. That is, that is definitelythe first thing I can do. Because many
people in fact, do this without knowingthat what they're doing is a violation
of the GPL. So you can definitely try tomake them aware of it. In case they do
not really want to make the change. Youcan discuss this with the wider, wider
wider WordPress community you can sharethis would wider, wider, wider WordPress
community you can if you have thebandwidth, you can try to get their
support you can you can talk to theirboss to see if they are willing to
change the license to that of the GPL.What if they decide to deliberately use
or deliberately not use the GPL. Nowthat is definitely a concern. The other
options that you have is to probablyreach out to the other co developers of
the WordPress software, people who areinfluencers. This definitely works if
this is a very popular plugin or a verypopular theme. So in some cases people
may not understand. But there are thereare examples of other very popular
themes, plugins, and WordPress basedsoftware, which are open source and
which are succeeding. So if that's oneof the concerns that they have, it can
definitely be alleviated by showingthose examples.
You can also try to get help from othermembers of the WordPress community to
try and reach out to these developers ifyou have the bandwidth, of course, to
try and get them to move their softwareto GPL. Also, the other thing is, as per
the guidelines of the WordPresscommunity plugin developers or theme
builder was basically any WordPresshelpers that violate the GPL license for
the WordPress products. They may not beable to move out of the WordPress
community when such as word camps ormean if they may not be able to, they
will not be able to speak sponsor, orvolunteer at word camps or WordPress
meetups. They can definitely add inthem, but they will not be able to speak
sponsors volunteer them, so they'remissing out on a lot just on the name
for license. And essentially, byswitching the license they are not
losing anything because they areactually supporting the core license
which supports wordpress.org.Definitely, I believe that should be an
incentive for them to move their pluginor their team or their wordpresser
derivative products to work to GPL.
That brings us to the next section ofour discussion. How can one contribute
to the WordPress now, WordPress ismaintained by an advanced global
community of volunteer contributors.People contributors to the WordPress
project are employed by severalcompanies across the world. Some of them
are individual contributors. Soessentially, many of these contributors
work for companies who specialize inWordPress and there are several others
who are independent users who basicallylove the word press often I would love
to contribute to it. Now, it is notnecessary to be a software developer who
contributes code to the WordPresssoftware. Now, please don't get me
wrong, that is definitely an importantrole. But the idea is that you need not
no development you will not be adeveloper not if you would like to
contribute to the WordPress core. Thereare several other ways in which a person
can contribute to the WordPress projectby assisting in support forums by
writing documentation, making languagetranslations having meetups and
wordcamps the ways are endless. Let'stake a look at the different ways in
which you can contribute to theWordPress project. All WordPress
contributions take place at MakeWordPress dot org. The collaborative
community is organized to two corporateteams. These teams can be sorted under
the categories of building, operationsextending and supporting. Let's start by
looking at the teams that do all thebuilding. The first is the Make
WordPress core team. They write the codethat is the core of the WordPress
software. Next is the design team whichdecides at Make WordPress design. They
have designed and developed the userinterface for WordPress. Next is the
Make WordPress accessibility team. The Xray team helps making WordPress and
everything on wordpress.org accessibleto people with disabilities. The next is
meta. The meta team helps with theinfrastructure that powers ER visit org
and wordcamp.org. The mobile team ofWordPress habits build mobile apps for
WordPress and the test team they helppatrol, test, curate and modify the
WordPress experience with QA, testingand user research. Next is operations.
The marketing team which resides in Makewordpress.org slash marketing helps
develop the materials and resources tomarket the WordPress Software and the
community. The hosting team they MakeWordPress hosting better for everyone
through collaboration, tooling, anddocumentation best practices the
extending team the extending team helpsadd features to WordPress. The first
half that is Make WordPress themes. Thethemes team reviews incoming theme code
to keep our theme directory in greatshape. The polyglots team they translate
all things in maintain localized siteson wordpress.org. The plugins team keeps
the plugin directory safe by reviewingcode and ensuring standards the tight
team they help you learn how to makeyour plugin or theme more standardized
faster, and more secure. The seal itcontribute to WBC Li the official
command line tool for managing yourWordPress site. Next up is the set of
groups are a set of teams that supportWordPress. The first of these is the
community community team brings peopletogether with events like meetups in
Word camps, along with outreachinitiatives for diversity and inclusion.
The docs team or the documentation teamhelps write and edit documentation
including the Codex, and our handbooks.The training team creates curricula for
free WordPress training resources thatpeople can really trust. The support
team, they answer questions to helpother WordPress users in support forums
and IRC.
The TV team,
they moderate all incoming WordPressvideos had the MacPro post processing
and transcribe and subscribe, subtitlevideos.
We've covered a lot so far, we'velearned what open sources we've covered
what GPL is, and how it impactsWordPress. We've learned about
contributing to WordPress even. Andfinally, let's take a look at the
different features of WordPress and whatthe different possibilities of what
results. Before we get to that, I'mgoing to quickly explain to you how to
set up a WordPress site in case youdon't know that already. So what is is
an open source software that isavailable for download from
wordpress.org. You can after downloadingthe software, you can set it up in a web
server. For that you need to purchase aweb hosting plan plan from a web hosting
company, there's several of themavailable, you can choose whichever one
you want. In case you do not want to gothrough the nitty gritties of installing
the software in a web server, you canalways go to wordpress.com to create a
site so that you can avoid the all thechallenges of buying a hosting plan, you
can you can directly create a free freeWordPress based website or a blog. So
once you create a website, you get adashboard from the dashboard, you get to
control the entire contents of the site.So the idea is that you can create
content, you can create a very beautifulsite without even having to write a line
of code. So we've spoken all about GPL.We've spoken a lot about coding. It's
interesting that contributing toWordPress is one part using WordPress
completely nother part. So as a user,you WordPress is a very user friendly
software. It allows you to create verybeautiful websites and very powerful
websites. So I'm going to quickly walkyou through some of the some of the
features that what was already offers insome of the sites some of the
possibilities that WordPress allows youto take part in. Let's go for a ride.
WordPress can be used to build Beautifulwebsites. Take a look at this website of
the Walt Disney Company. It is builtentirely using WordPress. If you can see
it as a lot of features, it has a newsection. It has its own section with
individual information. It is a blog ofsorts. So WordPress is very powerful.
You can use it to build any number ofbeautiful website. But is that it? Let's
take a look at the differentpossibilities of WordPress. This is the
website of the airstream supply company.Airstream, as you know is one of the
biggest trailer companies in the US.This is an e commerce site, which means
you can basically buy things from thewebsite. This is built using WordPress.
This site has a fully functional paymentgateway I can I can buy I can buy items
I can add to cart, I can make paymentsfrom the payment gateway. All these
features are integrated directly intothis website. As you can see right here.
Yes, so yes, all of this, this verybeautiful website is built using
WordPress. Let's take a look at thewebsite of TechCrunch TechCrunch is one
of the most popular technology blogs inthe world. TechCrunch is built using
WordPress directly. As you can see it'spowered by wordpress.com VIP. So as I
mentioned earlier, WordPress doesn't thepossibilities of WordPress does not end
here. It is immense. Here's the websiteof the New York Post, which is also
built using WordPress, one of the one ofthe United States most popular
newspapers are the origins of companiesthey are using WordPress. As we can see
from the footer. Let's take a look atthe singer company, the singer Australia
website. Singer, as you all know, is acompany that makes sewing machines. This
very beautiful website is also builtusing WordPress using the WooCommerce
plugin for the e commerce features.
Let's take a look at the solo practiceUniversity. So this is a social
networking site of sorts. They havetheir own login, where students or
people can actually log in and have asocial networking feed of sorts. This
very beautiful site is built usingWordPress. Yes, you can even build
social networking sites. Oh, that's verycool forum for the angry birds nest. For
all the Angry Birds fans out there. Nopoints for guessing basically, this very
beautiful site is also built usingWordPress using a plug in called BB
press. So there we are. Thepossibilities of WordPress are endless.
Let's take a look at an actual WordPresswebsite. So this is a test website that
I've built in my local developmentserver. As you can see, it is completely
built using WordPress. So how does theback end of WordPress look like? I'm
going to quickly take you through awalkthrough. So here let's take a look
at the dashboard. This is the dashboardwhich powers all the content of
WordPress. So let's play around with abit. Let's try adding some content. So
this is a test post. WordPress allowsyou to add you add blocks. So I'm going
to add a cover block here. I am going tofind some images. I'm going to add an
image directly from the that from mydashboard. Yes, it's here and I'm going
to modify it a bit. I'm going to make itfull width. I'm going to play around
with that. I am going to add Yeah, it asyou can see, it's very easy to add posts
to directly to WordPress. There aredifferent layout elements. As you can
see, I've added a three block widget soI'm going to play around with a bed.
Yeah. So I'm going to add a paragraph. Iadded some tax. I like block. So I'm
gonna add some text. I'm gonna add sometags Test. Test, test. Test. random
test. list one. list one, list two. Yep.I can basically just something to test
on. I can add coats if I want. Okay, I'mgonna add this fancy code, just a fancy
code by me. I've done all this and I'mgoing to publish this. Yep, the post is
live. Let's take a look at it. Ooh, it'sin the front end. Yes, as you can see
the post that I've just published. Ithas been published including the code.
So yeah, this is essentially howWordPress works. Now, let's clear on
this with a bit. As you can see, this isin the format of a blog. WordPress
offers different features, it allows youto add pages, posts, etc. So if you look
at this site, this is a page. And thisis a blog post. So now this is in the
format of blog, right? Let's try to dolet's try to convert it into a actual
site. How do we do it? I go to I go tothe dashboard, I click on settings, icon
reading. Then what I do is I change thisto static page, I add a sample page. And
I save changes. Let's see what happensin the front end. Whoo. groovy. Right?
So yep, my site is now a sample page.Now, this is some default stuff, which I
want to remove. How do I go about it? SoI go to the dashboard again, and go to
Customize. I go to widgets. I go tofooter one. I delete all of this. Yep. I
don't want any of this. I'm going toremove all of it. Let's see what
happens, shall we? Okay, I've publishedit. Let's see the changes. Okay. Oh,
that's all gone. There's a footer. Nice.So basically, this is what WordPress is.
You can add content using posts, you canadd pages. Media is for images. So since
it's a blog site, it gets comments. Sothe comments are recorded here. You can
change the appearance of your site. Asyou can see, there are themes too. So
these are two default themes. If youwant, you can add more themes. So yeah,
let's simply let's let's pray out playaround with a bit. I'm going to I'm
going to try installing a new theme. Idon't know if it will work, but I can
definitely try getting up. So I'm goingto try and solve a new theme.
It seems to be taking some time. In themeantime, I'm going to Yep, the theme
has been installed. So let me activatethe theme real quick. Yes, the theme has
been activated. Let's see if there's anychange in the site. Yep, the whole
appearance has changed. I can actuallyswitch between themes if I want. So I'm
going to go back to the old theme,because I think that was good. So I have
switched to let's see if it has changed.Yep, it is. The other thing is you can
add more features to your site usingplugins. So remember what I told you
earlier about adding features to yoursite like e-commerce. So there's a
plugin called WooCommerce, which allowsyou to add ecommerce functionality to
your site. Yep. Here's a one. installingthis plugin basically converts your site
to a store. What if you want to makeyour site into a forum? There is a
plugin for that. Yep, it's loading. It'sa plugin called BB press Yes, if I
install a plug in, I can convert my siteto a forum. I can add users to my site
here. So that's me. That's the defaultuser, which is me. And I can change the
name of my site, even switch test site.I'm going to change it to test site two.
And I've saved my changes. I've gone tothe dashboard. Yep, the name of the site
has changed. So that's all about thefeatures of WordPress. I've done a very
quick, very fast speed overview. Andwith that, we come to an end of this
workshop. I hope you've found thisworkshop useful today. We've covered a
lot of topics in wireless time. We'vetalked about the GPL. We've talked about
open source. We've talked aboutcontributing to WordPress and we've
literally walked through the features ofWordPress as well. I really hope you
find this session useful. And I hope tosee you online soon. Bye bye and have an
amazing day.