Release schedules, selling digital downloads, and some bonus links

In this roundup, I’ll discuss what’s going on with the WordPress release schedule. I’m also highlighting a new e-commerce solution for selling downloadable items in WordPress. And of course, I carefully selected some bonus links for your reading pleasure. Let’s dive in!

WordPress Release Schedules

WordPress has typically seen three to four releases per year for the last couple of years. Last year, we saw a bit of change in this, with a whole bunch of point releases leading up to the big 5.0 release. But, as things are settling down again, there’s been discussions on what the future of release schedules should look like.

The Core team is asking for feedback and I would highly recommend you to weigh in if you have an opinion in the matter. The post already lists some pros and cons, but more input is always better!

Selling digital downloads

You can tell that e-commerce is getting more and more important for people with WordPress websites. My favorite plugin for managing downloads in WordPress, Download Monitor, recently saw the addition of a highly requested feature. Namely, the ability to sell downloads. They also recently added full support for the Gutenberg editor, btw!

It’s great to see more lightweight e-commerce solutions coming to WordPress. Of course, we already have plugins like Easy Digital Downloads, but it’s not that lightweight anymore. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But having more options to choose from makes for a thriving ecosphere.

Bonus links

An interesting article I came across, in the shape of a long read, discusses the fact that the Internet was built on the free labor of Open Source developers. And, it asks the question of whether that is sustainable. This quote, in particular, stood out for me:

“I’m looking at you, Fortune 1000 companies, the ones who have never lifted a finger to contribute to the open source community that gave you this gift.”

– Steve Marquess

The article gives a very good insight into the ideas behind Open Source, the principle and license WordPress and many other great software solutions are built on. The article raises a lot of great, critical questions that may help you get a better understanding of the underlying principles. Highly recommend reading!

One more link

One more link I’d like to share with you, in case you’re curious about the progress the new Marketing Lead for the WordPress Project, our founder Joost, has been making in the last month or so. Go check out Joost’s post and see for yourself what’s been done.

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