El 4: WordPress Is Now 10 Years Old

Ten years ago today, the first public release of WordPress became available. Initially started as a fork of the little-known blogging platform b2/Cafelog, WordPress has grown to be the largest CMS in the world, powering an astounding 18% of the web.

Nearly 70 million websites run WordPress and it's hard to understate the impact that the software has had on the world of digital publishing. Hundreds of high-profile websites, including blogs from CNN, The New York Times and Reuters, all use WordPress. Mashable isn't a pure WordPress site anymore, but we do use it as a place to enter content. Since 2004, I personally have published millions of words using WordPress, most of those on Mashable.

WordPress was started by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little and the open-source software has grown to include thousands of contributors. Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and one of the biggest stewards in the development of the platform as a whole, announced last week that it had raised $50 million in a secondary stock transaction.

WordPress started as an easy, free way for users to publish their own content. If you had a web host that supported PHP and MySQL and you knew how to use FTP, getting WordPress installed took, famously, under five minutes. Today, most web hosts have one-click install buttons so that users don't even have to bother with FTP. Hosted offerings from WordPress.com and others are also abundantly available.

Moreover, WordPress is no longer just about blogging or personal publishing. As recently as 2010, I was reticent to call WordPress a true CMS but that's clearly no longer true. Full web applications are run on WordPress. Shopping cart systems, Twitter analytics services and even robust WordPress site management solutions can all be built on WordPress.

Plus, the larger ecosystem around WordPress — including plugins, themes, specialized hosting providers and custom solutions builders — is mammoth and still growing. Mullenweg told me earlier this year that his goal for WordPress is for it to be the "platform or operating system" for the web. That goal is coming closer to fruition with every passing month.

What's interesting is that, as WordPress has become more powerful, it has created room for more writing-focused platforms such as Medium, Svbtle and Ghost.

To celebrate 10 years of WordPress, the WordPress community is having special Meetup events across the globe. There is also a special microsite dedicated to tweets, photos and memories associated with WordPress.

We've updated our gallery, below, of how WordPress has evolved over the years and you can look back at nearly each and every version of WordPress from 0.7.1 to the latest 3.6 betas.

Share your WordPress memories in the comments.

WordPress 0.7.1

The first release of WordPress was unleashed onto the interwebs on May 27, 2003.

Check out the sparse backend/post page.
WordPress 1.0.1

WordPress hit 1.0 in January of 2004. The update included an improved installation process, a new default theme and a more robust backend.
WordPress 1.2

Released in May 2004, WordPress 1.2 introduced plugins, extending WordPress even further.
WordPress 1.5

In February 2005, WordPress 1.5 was released. It included new features like the ability to create pages, as well as posts and a new default theme, Kubrick. Kubrick would stay on as the default theme until 2010.
WordPress 2.0

On December 31, 2005, WordPress 2.0 was introduced to the world.

WordPress 2.0 featured a redesigned (and blue) admin, WYSIWYG editing and inline uploads.
WordPress 2.1

More than a year would pass before WordPress 2.1 would make its way to users in January 2007.

WordPress 2.1 included autosave for posts and drafts, a tabbed post editor and the ability to set any page as the homepage of a website.
WordPress 2.2

In May 2007, WordPress 2.2 was released. It introduced widgets to the WordPress world and kicked off a new, more frequent development cycle.
WordPress 2.3

WordPress 2.3 was released in September 2007. The big new feature in 2.3 was support for tags as well as categories. That may not seem that important in 2011, but at the time, it was a huge feature.
WordPress 2.5 Dashboard

In March 2008, WordPress 2.5 was released. A major user interface update, WordPress 2.5 brought about some major changes to the dashboard and post screen.
WordPress 2.5 Post Screen

Although certainly better looking than previous versions of WordPress, WordPress 2.5 was criticized for some as being "too different."

The interface remained largely unchanged in WordPress 2.6, released in July 2008, but the backend would soon change again.
WordPress 2.7

In December 2008, WordPress 2.7 became available. For the second time in less than a year, the user interface was completely revamped. This time, it was a hit.
WordPress 2.7 Post Screen

The overall interface remained largely the same from WordPress 2.7 through WordPress 2.9.

In the intervening 18 months, however, WordPress gained lots of new features and started to really round itself out as more than just a blogging engine.
WordPress 3.0 Dashboard

Released in June 2010, WordPress 3.0 was a major release for the platform.

Many of the new features, like custom post types and taxonomies have helped WordPress establish itself as a real, grown-up CMS.
WordPress 3.0 Post Screen

The post screen for WordPress 3.0 and 3.1 is customizable and modular.
WordPress 3.2 Dashboard

The next major WordPress release, WordPress 3.2, is expected sometime in June 2011. This release features a revamped dashboard and post interface. It also marks the official end for support for Internet Explorer 6.
WordPress 3.2 Post Screen

WordPress 3.2 carries over many of the elements from WordPress 3.0/3.1, but with a more refined look and feel.
WordPress 3.2 Distraction Free Writing Page

One of the big new features in WordPress 3.2 is the introduction of the Distraction Free Writing mode. This mode allows the user to just concentrate on writing, without worrying about sidebars, modules or custom fields.

In some respects, the new writing mode harkens back to the earliest days of WordPress.
WordPress 3.3 Dashboard

WordPress 3.3 ushered in a new admin toolbar (similar to what exists on WordPress.com) and better support for uploading lots of media.
WordPress 3.3 Media Uploads

Media support was greatly enhanced in WordPress 3.3, including support for drag and drop uploads.
WordPress 3.4 Dashboard

WordPress 3.4 added betters support for real-time theme customization and previews within the admin interface.
WordPress 3.4 Theme Customizer

One of the big features in WordPress 3.4 was the ability to live-customize a theme without having to dive into the code.

This includes changes to the header, footer and even colors.
WordPress 3.5

Released at the end of 2012, WordPress 3.5 included a cavalcade of new features, including a new default theme, support for retina displays, a new media manager and better support for access on mobile devices!
WordPress 3.6 New Post Screen

Currently nearing the end of its beta period, WordPress 3.6 includes a new post chooser (similar to Tumblr), a new default theme and better backend refinements.
WordPress 3.6 and MP-6, Future Dashboard

In addition to WordPress 3.6, the WordPress UI team is testing the next version of the WordPress Dashboard in a new plugin dubbed MP-6. It features a darker theme and more refined UI.