Know the roots. If you want to learn about the general development of WordPress over time and you haven’t been with the project on from it’s very beginning and before, it looks like you’ve reached the point where it’s time to learn about the history of the codebase.
You are probably like me: Not knowing much of it as this goes back to 2000. So I’ve compiled a timeline of events I could gather. Events of which I think that are good to know about the project’s history. I did focus towards the earlier time mainly and much for 2002 to 2004 as it’s the period I did not know a lot about.
Timeline of WordPress 2000-2005
So here they are: Events and changes of which I think are playing a role in WordPress’s project history. This dates back to 2000/2001 when the base software came to live of which WordPress forked. The precursor of WordPress, the GPL’ed blogging software b2, b2/CafeLog or more precisely CaféLog as the French author named it so back 2002 and probably even 2001.
It was originally published on the website cafelog.com and later on sourceforge.
There are other forks next to WordPress, so this information might be useful in part for users of b2evolution as well.
- 2000 and early 2001: Somehow common these days, Michel Valdrighi and others are using diverse php scripts to get a web-journal or web-log running (exemplary Comments PHP artifact).
- 2001-06-12: First post on cafelog.com: Michel Valdrighi (“michel v”) starts blogging with a software later known as b2/CaféLog. Not publicly released yet, he is making use of his new package of scripts for blogging called b2.
- 2002-02-03: Michel Valdrighi, copyright owner of the b2 code, announces the first b2 release under the GNU GPL.
- 2002-04-16: Michel Valdrighi registers the CaféLog project on SourceForge, a development web-plattform for free software projects. The b2/cafelog SCM repository is being created.
- 2002-07-16: b2 initial revision in the cafelog SCM repository on sourceforge.
- 2002-08-12: Release of b2 version 0.6pre4, the first release package on SourceForge (Blog).
- 2002-09-15: Version numbers are starting to be tracked in b2-include/b2vars.php (code ref). This principle is continued until today.
- 2002-11-04: Release of b2 version 0.6.1 , the last b2 version prior forking WordPress (Blog, code ref).
- 2003-03-28: Creation of the wordpress.org domain name. The source code will stay for a longer time on SourceForge. This date will be named later as “First Use in Commerce”.
- 2003-04-01: Creation of the wordpress-branch within the cafelog-repository by Matthew Charles Mullenweg (“saxmatt”; code ref).
- 2003-04-21: All files from b2 are now populated into the new branch (code ref).
- 2003-05-23: Mullenweg removes the b2 copyright notice.
- 2003-05-26: The first branch version, WordPress 0.7, is released.
- 2003-11-12: “The great renaming” (svn-r601) – b2 is getting removed from file-names.
- 2004-04-04: The SourceForge page is now titled “WordPress” instead of CaféLog.
- 2004-08-16: automattic.com, the domain for the spin-off by “Matt” Mullenweg is being registered.
- 2004-12-15: The release of WordPress 1.2.2 marks the last release in the CaféLog Project on SourceForge.
- 2005-02-14: The WordPress 1.5 release is the first release and marks the migration of the WordPress code repository over to automattic.com.
CaféLog and WordPress Release History
The following table contains all release information I could find regarding releases of the CaféLog project on SourceForge, and on the cafelog.com homepage. The CaféLog project was re-titled WordPress in April 2004. Those releases are listed as well. Most certainly the most complete releases list available online regarding the early releases. Ordered by date, early first. The last entry is the first release that was not part of the SourceForge Project any longer.
| Ver | Date | Package | Cat | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5.1 | 2001-10-13 | b2-v0.5.1-20011013 | -/- | Blog |
| 0.5.1 (2) | 2001-12-06 | b2-v0.5.1-20011206 | -/- | Blog |
| 0.6 pre | 2002-01-29 | b2-v0.6pre-20020129 | -/- | Blog |
| 0.6 pre2 | 2002-04-09 | b2-0.6pre2-20020409 | -/- | Blog +1 |
| 0.6 pre3 | 2002-07-01 | b2-0.6pre3-20020701 | -/- | Blog +3 |
| 0.6 pre4 | 2002-08-12 17:00 | b2-0.6pre4-20020813 | 0.x (b2) | Blog +1 |
| 0.6 pre5 | 2002-09-23 | b2-0.6pre5 | -/- | Blog |
| 0.6 | 2002-09-30 | b2-0.6 | -/- | Blog |
| 0.6.1 | 2002-11-04 14:17 | b2-0.6.1-20021104 | 0.x (b2) | Blog |
| 0.6.1 + ljupdate 0.2 | 2002-11-05 07:46 | b2-0.6.1-20021104 +ljupdate-0.2 |
0.x (b2) | -/- |
| 0.6.2 | 2003-05-24 00:00 | b2-0.6.2-20030524 | 0.x (b2) | Blog |
| 0.7 | 2003-05-26 | WordPress-Ver-0_7-20030526 | WordPress | Blog |
| 0.6.2.1 | 2003-06-25 00:00 | b2-0.6.2.1-20030625 | 0.x (b2) | -/- |
| 0.71 | 2003-06-08 22:00 | wordpress-071-gold | WordPress | Blog |
| 0.6.2.2 | 2003-10-09 15:00 | b2-0.6.2.2 | 0.x (b2) | Blog |
| 0.72 | 2003-10-10 22:00 | wordpress-072-gold | WordPress | Blog |
| 1.0 | 2004-01-03 | wordpress-1.0 | WordPress | Blog |
| 1.0.1 | 2004-01-25 03:40 | wordpress-1.0.1-miles | WordPress | Blog |
| 1.0.2 | 2004-03-11 16:55 | wordpress-1.0.2-blakey | WordPress | Blog |
| 1.2-Mingus | 2004-05-22 03:32 | wordpress-1.2-mingus | WordPress | Blog |
| 1.2.1 | 2004-10-06 12:19 | wordpress-1.2.1 | WordPress | Blog |
| 1.2.2 | 2004-12-15 | wordpress-1.2.2 | WordPress | Blog |
| 1.5 | 2005-02-14 | wordpress-1.5 | WordPress | Blog |
Domain Listing
For some related domain names, I’ve created a timeline as well for informational purposes:
| Domain | Created | Note |
|---|---|---|
| blogger.com | 1999-06-22 | Related |
| sourceforge.net | 1999-08-08 | Repository/Homepage |
| tidakada.com | 2001-09-24 | Homepage/Developer |
| cafelog.com | 2001-10-20 | Homepage/Developer |
| photomatt.net | 2002-06-10 | Homepage/Developer |
| wordpress.org | 2003-03-28 | Homepage |
| wordpress.net | 2003-11-11 | Homepage |
| textdrive.com | 2004-03-05 | Hoster |
| mobiusltd.com | 2004-06-09 | Developer/Company |
| automattic.com | 2004-06-18 | Repository/Developer(s)/Company |
| wp-plugins.org | 2004-07-16 | Repository |
| akismet.com | 2005-10-11 | Product |
Sources and References
The timelines are the result of work spread over mutliple days. I digged through a lot of references of which the more important ones I would like to list here, more or less in no specific order, most direct references are part of the timeline itself.
- SourceForge for firsthand b2 and wordpress information
- cafelog.com homepage for firsthand b2 information
- b2 Cafelog Resource Center for general information
- Evolution of WordPress: B2/Cafelog to WordPress 1.0 (14 Jul 2008; by Keith Dsouza) for general information
- Down Memory Lane With WordPress.com (July 31, 2009; by Jeffro) for infos about wordpress.com
- News about automattic on VentureBeat for business related information
- b2\cafelog is not notable (30 Apr 2008; by options) b2/CafeLog coverage
- WordPress, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for general information
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