The Weekly WordPress News: What would it Take for WordPress to Lose Dominance?

WordPress 4.1 Release Candidate is now available for download which includes the new default theme Twenty Fifteen, you can read about what else is new with it here. Or download it here. I love this new default theme, a huge step back in the right direction ( I thought Twenty Fourteen was awful ). A nice clean design, optimised nicely for mobile devices and good typography – this is how it should be done.

There was an interesting discussion on the WPTavern comments of this post, where Jeff asks what it would take for WordPress to lose it’s dominance. I found point 5 rather funny “A huge scandal takes place involving Automattic, the WordPress Foundation and those close to the project.” I just cant see WordPress being taken over for many years to come – it’s too far ahead at this point, sort of like the Facebook of CMS’s. Too many large companies rely on it to see it fail and I just don’t see anything at the momement that could even come close. I did a post recently about this, WordPress competitors, but none came close to what we have with WordPress. I think we’re all safe for a bit!

WordPress News and Articles

• WordPress 4.1 Release Candidate – Now available for download an testing.
• New Theme: Twenty Fifteen – This is a great improvement, love this new default theme.
• WP Clipboard – A huge list of WordPress resources, looks great too.
• How to Build a Successful WordPress Product – Read this if you are planning a WordPress product, some good tips from Thomas Griffin.
• What Would it Take For WordPress to Lose its Dominance? – Jeff at WPTavern considers what it would take for WordPress to lose popularity.
• Copyright Infringement Lesson Learned – Always be careful when sourcing your images online, unfortunately a lot of people aren’t.

Tutorials and How-Tos

• Using the WordPress Customizer for Saving User-Specific Options – Quick tutorial on the Customizer.
• Increase the visibility for your plugins with these creative hacks – Some tips for your plugin listing at WordPress.org.
• How to Use AJAX in WordPress to Load Search Results – How to use Ajax with WordPress searching.
• An Introduction to Programming WordPress Theme Menus – Confused by WordPress menus? Check out this guide.
• How to Install WordPress on a USB Stick Using Instant WordPress – WordPress in your pocket ? Check out this post if you need that!

Resources & Freebies

• The Best WordPress Drag and Drop Page Builder Plugins – Our updated guide to the best WordPress Page Builders.
• Huge Collection of the Best Free & Premium WordPress Slider Plugins – A Large selection of Free and Premium sliders for your WordPress themes.
• The WPlift Roundup of the Best Free WordPress Themes December 2014 – Our monthly roundup, some lovely themes this month.
• WordPress Review Themes: Build a Review Website with WordPress – Take a look if you need review functionality on your site.
• Handy Free Chrome Browser Apps and Extensions for WordPress Users – Joe’s roundup of Chrome apps designed to help you with WordPress.
• Prepare Your Website for Christmas – Free WordPress Christmas Plugins – Plugins for displaying Christmas messages, countdowns, cards and of course: falling snow!
• Idea Factory: A Frontend Submission and Voting System for WordPress – Nice little plugin to handle user submissions with voting, great for feature requests etc.