Those of you who do not stray far from the weblogs.asp.net feeds may not know about the larger blogging world around us. One of the big (and innovative) players is Six Apart, creators and owners of the MovableType weblog software and the TypePad weblog service. There was a recent shakeup when SixApart decided that it was time to charge something for MovableType and the controversy seems to be around how much they are charging  – not that the software is no longer free. I have not followed it closely (not much of an as the world turns kind of person…what can I say) but I know that they are responding to the outcry…check this recent post on their site:

If free isn’t an issue for you and you’re willing to pay for a version of Movable Type (say the $69 version) and the blog/author limits won’t work for your current use, write a non-emotional post explaining how you’re using Movable Type and TrackBack this entry.

Key words here “a non-emotional post“… so far there are 159 trackbacks to that one. (This will make 160.)

Shelley Powers wrote an interesting post about this and compared the tough decision on SixApart’s part to the “bite the bullet” moments of Oracle’s major change to version 6 and Microsoft’s huge change with .NET. Shelley’s got some deep roots in the software world and this is definitely an interesting read. Go check it out.

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