WordPress is likely the most widely used software for weblogs on this planet. It’s a good enough reason to discuss geek topics instead of holiday plans, soccer championships, or “who’s with whom and when” during small talk at the next party.

Here are the facts:

• WordPress originated from the blogging system b2 Cafelog, whose development had stagnated at that time.
• b2 programmer Michel Valdrighi announced the development on 23.05.03 as follows:

  Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little are leading the new WordPress branch of b2, that is going to become the new official branch once they get a release out. If you want to help with WordPress, don’t hesitate to contact either of them!

• Christine Tremoulet gave WordPress its name.
• WordPress Version 1.0 was released on Jan 3rd, 2004, and the software has been free to use since then.
• Today, WordPress serves as the foundation for millions of blogs with diverse content, such as travel reports, linguistic nuances, or essays on books, video games, and movies.
• In 2005, Matt Mullenweg founded his company “Automattic,” which operates the spam filter Akismet and the blog hosting service WordPress.com.
• Automattic currently has 18 employees but no physical office space. Matt’s apartment serves as the company’s address.
• There were rumors for a short time that Automattic would be acquired by Yahoo!
• Al Gore runs his blog on WordPress (and was promptly hacked).
• WordPress 2.4 will never be released.

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