Movable Type 4

Out in beta. One more item on the to-do list. I’ll run it on a test blog and check out the new bells and whistles. MT development has felt fairly stalled of late - lots of tweaking around the margins, but no bold moves forward. MT4 looks to be a welcome revival.

The dashboard looks sweet. Good. I like pretty interfaces. The admin interface has long needed an overhaul. WYSIWYG editing? Very good. File management? Now that sounds useful. Management of an entire site, including static pages? Nice.

I don’t know much about OpenID, support for which is being heavily touted. It’s not entirely clear to me where TypePad authentication fits into the new regime. “Built-in member registration system for reader and comment authentication” could mean any number of things. Guess I’ll find out.

I think I’m reading that Multiblog-style templated content from other blogs will be supported in an MT4-powered weblog. If so, it’s welcome news. I was really irked that this functionality was part of Movable Type Enterprise but not regular-Joe MT.

Which leads to this: I often think of Six Apart and Apple as twins when it comes to their ever-expanding ambitions. 6A wants to conquer the business world - content management for all - and that’s fine with me, more power to them, as long as the company remembers to provide useful and modern (and fairly affordable) tools for me, the lowly individual blogger.

I also think of 6A and Apple in terms of loyalty to brands and products. Both have served me well, and I’ve stored up a lot of good will toward each, spurning the siren songs of competitors. It’s nice to think that this loyalty is being rewarded.

It’s also nice to know that I have a web host that will upgrade me - for a nominal fee - when the time comes.

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