Cloudflare Announces EmDash As Open-Source 'Spiritual Successor' To WordPress (phoronix.com)
- Reference: 0181203146
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/04/01/1935240/cloudflare-announces-emdash-as-open-source-spiritual-successor-to-wordpress
- Source link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Cloudflare-EmDash
> With the help of AI coding agents, Cloudflare engineers have been rebuilding the WordPress open-source project "from the ground up." EmDash is written entirely in TypeScript and is a server-less design. Making plug-ins more secure than the WordPress architecture, EmDash plug-ins are sandboxed and run in their own isolate. EmDash builds upon the Astro web framework. EmDash doesn't rely on any WordPress code but is designed to be compatible with WordPress functionality. EmDash is open-source now under the MIT license.
The EmDash code is available [7]on GitHub .
[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/04/01/1625202/cloudflare-launches-1111-consumer-dns-service-with-a-focus-on-privacy
[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/04/01/1856259/cloudflare-launches-a-dns-based-parental-control-service
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/04/01/1726224/cloudflare-says-its-new-vpn-service-wont-slow-you-down
[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/04/01/1625202/cloudflare-launches-1111-consumer-dns-service-with-a-focus-on-privacy
[5] https://blog.cloudflare.com/emdash-wordpress/
[6] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Cloudflare-EmDash
[7] https://github.com/emdash-cms/emdash
Rebuild in what language? (Score:2)
If you're going to rewrite it, can you write it in Rust? I've never been quite clear on what the point of TypeScript was. "JavaScript, but with types!" isn't much of a selling point.
Re: (Score:2)
It makes it harder to write bad Javascript since it lets you catch errors earlier. Basically it's a safety net for your IDE.
The side effect of this is LLMs can generate compatible code more reliably, so you're going to see a lot more of it.
Re: (Score:2)
> can you write it in Rust?
why? can't you?
> I've never been quite clear on what the point of TypeScript was
you do look a bit challenged indeed, mate. hang on!
disclaimer: i give exactly the same number of fucks about rust, typescript, wordpress, emdash and cloudflare for that matter: none. this comment for educational entertainment only.
Re: (Score:2)
>> can you write it in Rust?
> why? can't you?
Only those whose programming skills are paradoxically both rusty and not rusty. :-)
(Schrödinger would have been a weird programmer)
Re: (Score:2)
The most practical reason is simply mindshare when you are relying on the success of the platform in people developing plugins. People who are interested in a CMS and displaying web content to folks are much more likely to know JS/TS. And that's pretty clear going a level deeper than the CMS to the framework level, can look at the GitHub stars on Astro is 10x compared Rust frameworks. Which is undoubtedly the reason that Cloudflare has been sponsoring Astro. And now they have something to monetize through t
My inner editor is incensed. (Score:3)
> Making plug-ins more secure than the WordPress architecture, EmDash plug-ins are sandboxed and run in their own isolate.
While technically you can use "isolate" as a noun, the usage here is in such an awkward state that it would make a line editor do the line editor equivalent of flipping a table and throwing a bottle of expensive scotch at the writer's head while screaming, "Fix your shit!"
Also, let's not burden EmDash with the historical baggage of Wordpress just because people are looking for an alternative. I mean, it sicks in its own special way, but it's not *THAT* terrible. Yet. Move enough people to it and I'm sure it can get there, but no reason to start its race with all the baggage of Wordpress hanging on its neck.
Re: (Score:2)
WordPress developers are very hive minded. Marketing this new cleanroom CMS as a successor to WordPress is a brilliant move.
If I can have my AI engine of choice design up a new site, and emdash has the MCP engine to control the CMS side, deploying a website just became even simpler than the various drag and drop wordpress page editors.
Re: (Score:2)
> WordPress developers are very hive minded. Marketing this new cleanroom CMS as a successor to WordPress is a brilliant move.
> If I can have my AI engine of choice design up a new site, and emdash has the MCP engine to control the CMS side, deploying a website just became even simpler than the various drag and drop wordpress page editors.
Oh yeah, you got marketing directors the world over wet with throwing AI on top of a successor to WP.
Re: (Score:2)
> but no reason to start its race with all the baggage of Wordpress hanging on its neck.
Wordpress is a name everyone knows. This is unfortunate on multiple levels, but still true.
Re: (Score:2)
>> but no reason to start its race with all the baggage of Wordpress hanging on its neck.
> Wordpress is a name everyone knows. This is unfortunate on multiple levels, but still true.
And some for precisely the reasons you wouldn't want to associate with it. I know, no bad press, and I also know our marketing people love it, but that shouldn't really help the cause.
Re: (Score:2)
> Also, let's not burden EmDash with the historical baggage of Wordpress just because people are looking for an alternative. I mean, it sucks in its own special way, but it's not *THAT* terrible. Yet. Move enough people to it and I'm sure it can get there, but no reason to start its race with all the baggage of Wordpress hanging on its neck.
While Cloudflare is certainly free to release their own alternative...it's not like Wordpress lacks competition - there's Ghost and WriteFreely for blogging. There's Drupal and Joomla for website building. There's Plone, Concrete, Hugo, Silverstripe, and Ametys (if you hate yourself) for niche requirements. ClassicPress and WPDistrib are direct forks of Wordpress. All of these are free-as-in-beer. Most have some form of OSS license.
So...while I'd certainly agree that Wordpress sucks in its own way, its mass
hmm (Score:2)
In the future, it's probably better to save actual announcements for days other than April 1st...
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, April fools we just killed your business model Wordpress. Have a nice day.
Re: (Score:2)
I like the way you think Mr Pimp
Fools or not? (Score:1)
Making an announcement on AFD and saying it's not a joke doesn't clarify whether it's a joke.
Mon ami, sparez-moi le plus change? (Score:2)
The summary quotes the article in saying "the open-source WordPress project". If WordPress is already open-source, how likely is it that anyone will switch to this new codebase? Seems like any of their existing reasons for not switching haven't changed a great deal.
Re: (Score:2)
Open Source isn't the real selling point here. People clearly like WordPress style development, but that comes along with how heavy weight WordPress is and the dangers of the plugin ecosystem. A simple web search for "WordPress plugin attacks" will reveal a large number of serious CVEs.
Then making design choices that are popular with the frontend community with Astro, TypeScript, Tailwind or vanilla CSS. Is likely to attract people to write good plugins. And lastly is combining those design decisions with C
Nope (Score:2)
> With the help of AI coding agents,
No thanks. Good Bye!
Missed the point... (Score:2)
The whole point of Wordpress is so you can host your own site and not have to have your web site held hostage by one of the oligarch-controlled cloud providers!
Re: (Score:2)
This whole project is MIT-licensed and [1]runs on standard web infrastructure [github.com] so there's not really much lock-in here. But I don't think it's unreasonable of them to make it nice, cheap, and easy to run on their own platform.
[1] https://github.com/emdash-cms/emdash?tab=readme-ov-file#portable-platforms
It went from zero to "beta preview" in 10 hours? (Score:2)
My hot take: This is Matt Kane (a legit Astro core team member) using Claude Code to generate an entire CMS in a day as an April Fools flex / proof of concept / "look what AI-assisted development can do now."
Re: (Score:2)
They did the [1]same thing in a week with Next.JS [cloudflare.com] that wasn't an April Fools prank.
[1] https://blog.cloudflare.com/vinext/
Rather Dashing (Score:2)
I expect that it'll go towards U+2E3A and U+2E3B rather than U+2013.