Earlier today I posted about the big WordPress Hacks theme giveaway contest. Only a few hours later Brian Gardner and Jason made a MAJOR announcement, so I decided to clarify a few things with Brian and get this post up for people to discuss.
For those that don’t follow Revolution closely, Brian has been teasing a major project for several weeks now, but I doubt any of us realized just how major it was until today when he announced that Revolution is going open source. For the few of you that are wondering what open source is, this basically means that all future Revolution source code will be made available for free, making all future Revolution themes completely free. Also keep in mind that not every detail has been worked out already, so some of the minor details may change a little as the new Revolution gets ready to launch.
According to Brian:
As of 12:00 midnight, Friday October 31st, the themes that are currently available at the Revolution theme site will no longer be available. Ever. This was a decision that I made in order to protect the integrity of the current themes and the conditions under which they were released. Over the past year I have built a community of Revolution users, and to freely offer up those themes would be completely unfair to them. My community matters to me, and this is how I have chosen to handle current themes.
So what does this mean? It means that as of Saturday November 1st, a completely new Revolution site will launch – call it the second coming, or what you will. There will be a new set of themes on that website, which like I said will be made available under the GPL license. There will be an option to purchase packages which include support, tutorials, access to customization and a few other things.
I have to admit that this news shocked me at first, but as I’ve pondered it throughout the day today, the whole business concept seems to be a smart move. The idea of premium WordPress themes is okay, but I’ve never been 100% convinced that this business model will survive for more than a few years.
Just like ebooks, premium themes can be distributed illegally and the whole concept kind of goes against the spirit of open source and WordPress. Under this new business model, a bare version of the theme will be available for free to everyone, but services such as theme customizations, support, and tutorials will require either a one-time fee or a monthly/quarterly membership (attempting to get clarification on this still). This way there is no theft worries, the theme is available for anyone to use for free, and the new business model will likely earn a recurring income instead of the income gained with a one-time purchase, making for a better long term solution.
So, what does this mean for current owners of the Revolution theme?
As you can see from Brian’s quote above, not much will change for existing members of the Revolution community. All existing themes will NOT be made open source so buyers will still have their unique theme they purchased. The current Revolution URL will redirect to the new website on November 1st, 2008, and the forums and other support tools will have a home on the new website for anyone to use.
As a side note, if you have been eyeing one of the existing Revolution themes, but you’ve been waiting to commit to purchasing one, then you only have until the end of this month. At that time they will be taken down and no longer available to be purchased.
Kyle Eslick
Kyle Eslick is WordPress enthusiast who took his passion for WordPress to the next level back in 2007 by launching WPHacks.com as a place to share hacks and review WordPress-related products. You can learn more about him by following his personal tweets here.
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I'm looking for new magazine theme 
I can say I have used the free themes by Brian Gardner in the past and they are good. Have never used a premium theme myself till now at least. Revolution going free/open source is great news for all especially those who dig Brian Gardner and his work.
This is definitely an interesting move and will raise a lot of questions for other premium theme designers.
I wonder if he was forced into this because too many people were sharing the themes without paying for them?
Anyway, with Brian being a leader in this industry it makes you wonder who will follow his lead. I think the guys at “Woo Themes” have proven that people are willing to pay the monthly fee to join a club so it will be interesting to see how Brian structures his support package.
Either way, as someone who purchased several Revolution Themes, I can say that it certainly makes it exciting for those wanting high class designs
The most popular premium theme is now free, I guess many people will be happy to hear it!
As the WP premium themes becomes more and more popular, and free themes having the smae quality than most premium, it is a logical evolution.
Time to go buy one!
Awesome news! I’m a huge fan of Brian’s work, so I’m excited to see what the new, open source version of Revolution. Cool!
Kyle, I have to disagree. I don’t see why it won’t last. People will always pay for something they can’t get for free. Revolution is good, but in my opinion, it’s not the best available. Plus, if people bought the ‘custom’ versions or Revolution for $500, they certainly didn’t do it because they could not find any free themes. Plus, the fact they can be distributed illegally just means they are good enough to steal. So are cars and they are even counterfitting rolex watches these days, and they are extremely close to the originals. I’ve never understood the concept that selling something goes against the open-source model. If it does, then the open source model is what won’t last. Because business will go on as it always has.
Anyway, interesting points!
I agree with Tim. There is more to a theme than just the code itself. When buying a premium theme, people are also paying for regular updates and support. I’m not saying that can’t be done in the open source world as I’m a big fan of open source. But I don’t think it works for all users and many bloggers just want a theme that works and are willing to pay for someone else to maintain it and provide them with support.
I think Tim and Patrick bring up a couple good points. In fact, I spent some time discussing this openly on one of my blogs this morning (www.myideaguy.com/blog) and the two questions I asked were this:
1) Is it a smarter business model to “give away the premium theme and charge for support” vs. “charge for the theme and give free support”?
Certainly Brian’s move indicates charging for support maybe the better idea.
The other thing to think about is how this fits with the WordPress community as a whole.
Does this mean that the WordPress community will frown upon people who sell complimentary products and services to WordPress users?
It would certainly be a shame if that were to happen and I get the sense that there is a bit of relief from Brian that he doesn’t have to deal with that pressure anymore.
I guess we’ll see
At the end of the day I too feel that there will always be a percentage of people that are willing to pay for premium services and products.
It will just be interesting to see how this plays out in the marketplace.
Great discussion!
And once again, the community confuses open source with Free. Brian *could* charge for his themes even while making them available under the GPL (and, note, the GPL is only one of the open source licenses). IN fact, the GPL explicitly allows this. He just would not be able to prohibit redistribution which, of course, makes charging more of an issue. But you CAN certainly sell OS software – let’s stop confusing the 2 things.
@ Rick – I don’t think there is any confusion here by most people. The thing is, GPL is the open source license that Brian is using specifically because he wants to follow in the steps of WordPress.
If he charges for a theme, but releases it under GPL, then everyone will just exchange it freely, negating a reason for anyone to ever buy the theme. I’m sure you can see why that would be a problem. As a result, it is only logical for someone to associate open source with free, as no business model could support it.
Software like Firefox (which is open source) makes money from contracts with search engine, but the software itself is free to users. Brian will be following a similar business model, but will instead charge for the extras which aren’t required.
who can help me with seting up the Options of it ???