Chapter 1. Getting Started with WordPress

What Is WordPress?

WordPress is the leading blogging tool, period. It’s popular with rank beginners, mainstream bloggers, business bloggers, and pros. People use it to post their thoughts for a few friends—and to reach hundreds of thousands of people a day.

WordPress is notable for several reasons. The backbone of all WordPress blogs is free, open source software. Michel Valdrighi developed the original software, called b2\cafelog; he’s now a contributing developer to WordPress. The current WordPress software first appeared in 2002 as a new version or “fork” by Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg, now the most visible leader of the WordPress community.

Matt founded Automattic in 2005. Automattic ...

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