Adam Lowe intelligently discusses alternatives to WordPress and shares a spreadsheet with this notes on them.

There is too much bad stuff going around about WordPress, but more keeps leaking out. Here is a thread on X that shows the data collected by WooCommerce … the extent of which is way over the top

SQLite is used in WordPress for the Playground feature. There have been requests for it to be an alternative to MySQL / MariaDB. It seems to me that it might be an option in the future for faux static sites. Here are some interesting facts about SQLite.

Google was found guilty of maintaining an illegal search and text advertising monopoly. Yesterday the US Department of Justice asked the court to require Google to divest of it Chrome browser. This will be decided in April.

Automattic has published a site that tracks customers who left WP Engine and provides a downloadable list of those remaining. This is an escalation of the dispute between Automattic vs WP Engine.

The dispute between WP Engine on the one side and Automattic and Matt Mullenweg on the other, is spilling into the mainstream now. The BBC reports on the dispute and how it is bringing uncertainty and risk to WordPress businesses.

WooCommerce 9.4 adds Brands functionality into WooCommerce. This new feature provides free access to brand management, product assignment, and customization.

The new Brands feature will allow you to create and manage brands for stores and assign them to products. It works similar to how categories work and will be released end of this month.

Rae Morey reports that Matt Mullenweg has revised up his demands of WP Engine.

The well respected WordPress security company, Patchstack, received $5M in funding from Emilia Capital. Also, Joost de Valk, co-founder of Yoast will be joining their board.