Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, recently responded to David Heinemeier Hansson, also known as DHH, the creator of Ruby on Rails. This comes after DHH expressed his views on the WordPress conflict between Automattic and WP Engine, suggesting that it is causing chaos in the open-source community.
Matt started by acknowledging this as a respectful disagreement, stating that both should ideally have a direct conversation but are unable to do so due to their separate travels. He mentioned how DHH claims to be an open-source expert, yet the products at his company 37signals like Hey, Campfire, Writebook, and Basecamp are not widely popular.
Furthermore, Matt discussed the open-source within their respective companies, comparing Rails with 943k lines of code to Automattic’s open-source with 6.58M lines of code. He expressed uncertainty about who truly leads the open-source community, noting how others have built upon Rails to create profitable products like Shopify while DHH has not achieved the same success.
Matt emphasized that this is a trademark violation, something DHH should comprehend as Rails, Ruby on Rails, and the Rails logo are trademarked under DHH’s ownership and licensed through The Rails Foundation.
In response to Matt’s post, DHH also shared his thoughts. He suggested that while he should ideally refute what Matt posted, it is clear that Matt believes failure occurs when others can monetize what we create better, a concept not foundational to his views on open source. DHH takes pride in the success of companies like Shopify, GitHub, Gusto, and others built on Rails, emphasizing that this is his source of pride.
DHH argued that if we view those benefitting from what we create as indebted to us, we will perpetually carry that burden. Instead, we should find contentment in our creations. He acknowledged that this viewpoint may not be popular, but it is one that brings him satisfaction.
In conclusion, both Matt Mullenweg and DHH present contrasting perspectives on open source and the value of creations in the tech industry.
TLDR: Matt Mullenweg and DHH engage in a dialogue about open source, trademarks, and the monetization of creations in the tech industry, showcasing differing viewpoints on success and pride in one’s work.
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