Comment Re:It's way too late for this to matter (Score 1) 78
This potentially gets into a bit of terminology, in that what will be exclusively available to commercial licensees will be the "Professional Pack." which will include some features only they will have access to. At the moment, it's known that this will include(or only be) the bundling of an updated version of one of the existing custom fields plugins, which 6A has acquired from the developer. The only theme I'm aware of that's not openly available is the one used for the new forums at forums.movabletype.org, and that's because its templates are simply impossible to implement without the Community Pack that it comes with. So, yes, paying customers get bonus bits; this is not a new concept. Over time, it's expected that things will filter down as new features are added.
So, in practical terms, at this moment, there is only a single plugin that will be commercial-exclusive. And there's nothing stopping someone else from creating another such plugin and distributing it however they like. There is, in fact, already another custom fields plugin(RightFields) which hasn't yet been updated for MT4, for example. Custom fields have been in the plans for some time now, and I'm personally of the opinion that distributing the plugin like this is simply a convenient way to get a head start on its eventual integration directly into the core code.
In retrospect, I may have over-interpreted the original comment's "getting access to all plugins," as a claim that plugins as a whole wouldn't be available to MTOS(we'll have to wait for him to confirm/deny that), but where this all starts getting into terminology is the fact that the distinction between MT features and plugins can get vague in places. For example, beyond an internal rating system which can be applied to pretty much any object, MT's spam management features themselves are almost entirely contained in a plugin set(SpamLookup, which is actually three modules). The same for its theming capabilities(which function, for comparison is directly in the core code of WordPress.) CustomFields is heavily integrated into the UI to the degree you probably wouldn't know it was a plugin if you weren't told beforehand.
While this so far explains extensions to basic functionality, work is also under way to modularize the application, such that things that are "obviously" core functions like commenting will be possible to rip out altogether if you don't need them because they'll be "components," which are by and large just plugins with more than the usual access.
Ultimately, and bluntly, I'm very active in the MT community, and there are a lot of people who I've simply never heard of making lots of weird and patently false claims about what's going on while often simultaneously pointing out that they haven't used MT since they "sold out" and went commercial. I'd suggest that if you're really interested in answers you do some research of your own or swing by the various MT forums or mailing lists where we'd be happy to address any questions or point you in the right direction. It's impossible to chase down every instance of FUD going around right now, and frankly the only reason I commented here was that we were basically laughing our heads off over the responses earlier.
So, in practical terms, at this moment, there is only a single plugin that will be commercial-exclusive. And there's nothing stopping someone else from creating another such plugin and distributing it however they like. There is, in fact, already another custom fields plugin(RightFields) which hasn't yet been updated for MT4, for example. Custom fields have been in the plans for some time now, and I'm personally of the opinion that distributing the plugin like this is simply a convenient way to get a head start on its eventual integration directly into the core code.
In retrospect, I may have over-interpreted the original comment's "getting access to all plugins," as a claim that plugins as a whole wouldn't be available to MTOS(we'll have to wait for him to confirm/deny that), but where this all starts getting into terminology is the fact that the distinction between MT features and plugins can get vague in places. For example, beyond an internal rating system which can be applied to pretty much any object, MT's spam management features themselves are almost entirely contained in a plugin set(SpamLookup, which is actually three modules). The same for its theming capabilities(which function, for comparison is directly in the core code of WordPress.) CustomFields is heavily integrated into the UI to the degree you probably wouldn't know it was a plugin if you weren't told beforehand.
While this so far explains extensions to basic functionality, work is also under way to modularize the application, such that things that are "obviously" core functions like commenting will be possible to rip out altogether if you don't need them because they'll be "components," which are by and large just plugins with more than the usual access.
Ultimately, and bluntly, I'm very active in the MT community, and there are a lot of people who I've simply never heard of making lots of weird and patently false claims about what's going on while often simultaneously pointing out that they haven't used MT since they "sold out" and went commercial. I'd suggest that if you're really interested in answers you do some research of your own or swing by the various MT forums or mailing lists where we'd be happy to address any questions or point you in the right direction. It's impossible to chase down every instance of FUD going around right now, and frankly the only reason I commented here was that we were basically laughing our heads off over the responses earlier.
