I installed the real old versions of WordPress on my computer, from 0.71 in 2003 to today, and went through every big change, one by one. Here is the video, and the whole story in one page.
In 30 seconds
- WordPress started in 2003 as a fork of b2, a blogging tool by Michel Valdrighi, kept alive by Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.
- Plugins (2004), themes (2005) and the one-click update (2008) turned a blog tool into the tool for everything.
- Gutenberg (2018) and full site editing (2022) changed how we build, and not everyone followed.
- Since 2025, AI is in core: the Abilities API, an AI client, and an official MCP adapter so agents can work on your site.
- About 4 sites in 10 run on WordPress today. Two things to watch: security and dependence.
Before WordPress, there was b2
In 2001, Michel Valdrighi, a self-taught French developer living in Corsica, wrote b2, a small blogging tool, while learning PHP. He wanted his own alternative to Blogger. Then, in early 2003, he went quiet, and b2 stopped moving. Matt Mullenweg wrote that his blogging software was dead. Mike Little answered in the comments that he’d help. That’s how WordPress started: two people deciding to keep b2 alive.
Michel came back a few months later and joined them, with more than two hundred commits until 2005. Even in WordPress 0.71, the files are still called b2: you can literally see the fork.
The timeline
- 2001 Michel Valdrighi writes b2 (cafelog).
- May 2003 WordPress 0.70 is out. Installing it takes about thirty seconds, and the whole admin is: write a post, publish.
- 2004 Plugins arrive. In May, Movable Type changes its license and many bloggers move to WordPress.
- 2005 Themes arrive. Matt starts Automattic in August.
- 2007 Widgets: drag a box into your sidebar, done.
- 2008 The update button. One click, and your site is up to date.
- 2010 WordPress 3.0: custom post types, menus and multisite. Shops, magazines, company sites: WordPress stops being only for blogs.
- 2013 Sites start updating themselves in the background.
- 2016 The REST API lands in core, so other apps can talk to WordPress.
- December 2018 WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg, the block editor.
- 2022 Full site editing: header, footer, everything in blocks.
- December 2022 A few weeks after ChatGPT, I start AI Engine.
- 2024 Automattic and WP Engine go to court. A trial is set for October 2027.
- December 2025 WordPress 6.9 adds the Abilities API: a site can describe what it can do.
- May 2026 WordPress 7.0 brings an AI client into core.
- October 2026 The MCP adapter becomes an official plugin, so agents like Claude can work on your site directly.
Fun detail: every major release is named after a jazz musician. Version 1.0 was Miles Davis, and they still do it today.
Gutenberg, honestly
A lot of people hated the block editor at first. The Classic Editor plugin, which brings the old editor back, still has more than eight million installs. I gave the beta five stars in 2017: not truly usable yet, but clearly the future. Full site editing is another story. It was supposed to answer the page builders, but page builders were easy and friendly, and blocks never really were. I still make my themes the classic way, and with AI agents, that’s now an advantage: a classic theme is just files an agent can read.
Security, honestly
Security flaws keep growing: about 4,500 were disclosed in 2022, more than 11,000 in 2025 (Patchstack), almost all in plugins and themes. Part of it is good news, since more people are looking. But every service you plug into your site holds a key: backups, security services, AI connectors. This October alone, a flaw in PHP itself hit WordPress sites (PHP2Shell), and a well-known backup service had its keys stolen (who holds the keys to your site).
Where it’s going
I think we’ll simply talk to our sites. “Add a page about my trip.” “Clean my media library.” And it will happen. I already work this way on my own travel site, and I wrote down how I run it with an AI agent. I also think there will be fewer sites, and more services connected to real, living things: real-time information you can’t find anywhere else.
If you love WordPress, keep an eye on two things. Security: every key you hand out is one more door. Dependence: if your site only works through an AI you rent, someone else sets the price and the rules. Owning your site was always the whole point of WordPress. Let’s keep it that way.
And from time to time, open your WordPress and just look around. Open your plugins, play with their settings, read a tutorial. That’s how I learned it. Where do you think it’s going? Tell me in the comments of the video.
