On May 27, 2003, the first public version of the open-source project known as WordPress became available for download. What started as a fork of the blogging platform b2 has evolved into one of the largest publishing platforms on the web.
More than 45 million websites are powered by WordPress or WordPress.com — including Mashable. In celebration of WordPress’s eight birthday, we wanted to take a look at how the project and its user interface has evolved over the years.
To Matt, Mike and the hundreds (if not thousands) of volunteers that have helped make the project what it is, we salute you!
WordPress 0.7.1
The first release of WordPress was unleashed onto the interwebs on May 27, 2003.
Check out the sparse b ackend/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...
