Editor’s take: The fight between WordPress and WP Engine could bring the entire WP community to an unprecedented breakup. It’s why the Linux Foundation is trying to avoid the worst-case scenario with an alternative platform for distributing and sharing WP-related content.
While Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine are fighting for the heart (and money) of WordPress, the Linux Foundation (LF) is trying to bring some semblance of order to this chaos. The non-profit organization born to support Linux and open-source movements recently introduced the Fair Package Manager Project, a new initiative designed to host and distribute WordPress code and content through a neutral platform.
Fair is a federated and independent repository of WordPress plugins, themes, and tools, released through both open-source and commercial ventures. This new vendor-neutral package management system is designed to bring stability to the WordPress platform, the Linux Foundation explained. LF Executive Director Jim Zemlin said that WordPress contributors, developers, and companies should rest assured that a neutral organization is now managing updates and plugins.
The Fair Package Manager Project’s official repository explains in detail how the new platform is trying to achieve its stated goals. The project is a decentralized alternative to WordPress.org’s centralized approach to managing WP’s plugin and theme ecosystem. It works as a drop-in replacement for the traditional WP platform, providing a new API for communicating with server-side resources, and a new package distribution model and protocol that can work with custom mirrors and domains as well.
The Fair project can be implemented in custom WordPress installations either as a standalone plugin or as a full WP distribution with the plugin preinstalled. Fair removes reliance on a single source for WP core and plugin updates, LF said, and will strive to fight fragmentation within the overly contentious WP ecosystem. Furthermore, Fair should make WordPress more aligned with Europe’s GDPR, with improved privacy and security measures and less telemetry data sent to commercial entities.
According to LF’s announcement, Fair should be well-received by all WP players thanks to the people involved with the project. The Technical Steering Committee is led by Carrie Dils, Mika Epstein, and Ryan McCue, who are prominent figures and experts in the WP community. Dils is a well-known supporter of independent developers; Epstein is the former manager; and McCue developed the all-important WordPress REST API while contributing to the project for more than 20 years.
The Fair Package Manager Project is clearly trying to address the clash between Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine. In 2024, Mullenweg escalated the criticism against WP Engine, a WP hosting company that allegedly exploited WordPress.org resources to fuel its own business without paying a dime in exchange. WordPress is both an open-source project and a commercial venture, while the new Fair project is depicted as a fully community-led project aiming to build a new WP infrastructure that is both resilient and “fair” to everyone.