{"id":224210,"date":"2025-12-30T09:07:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T09:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/?p=224210"},"modified":"2025-12-28T17:58:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T17:58:17","slug":"dev-lets-git-this-bread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/dev-lets-git-this-bread\/","title":{"rendered":"DEV: Let\u2019s Git This Bread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Welcome to DEV.<\/strong><br \/>\nThis ain\u2019t your grandma\u2019s newsletter\u2026 unless she codes in WordPress, of course. (In which case, hi Grandma! \ud83d\udc75\ud83c\udffc)<br \/>\nBuckle up for the final fortnightly round-up of the year, bringing you the latest tools, events, updates and cool stuff built by smart people. <\/p>\n<p>Stick around to the end to see a very good name for a snow plow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In today\u2019s edition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your nudge to stop \u201cthinking about speaking someday\u201d and actually submit a WordCamp talk.<\/li>\n<li>Troy sneaks through the city gates to decentralize plugin distribution.<\/li>\n<li>The WordPress roadmap for 2026: Releases, timing and the big ideas on the horizon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Hot Off The Presses: What\u2019s New?<\/h2>\n<div class=\"image-grid cgrid-row\">\n<div class=\"cgrid-col cgrid-col-span-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/robbie-delfs-new-years-resolution-bug-fixes-tweet-1050x513.png\" alt=\"Tweet by Robbie Delfs joking about New Year\u2019s resolutions being bug fixes and improvements.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"513\" class=\"aligncenter size-ratio-full wp-image-224211\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/br><\/p>\n<p>Okay, hear me out: this meme is funny, but it\u2019s also a genuinely healthy way to think about New Year\u2019s resolutions.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t need to completely reinvent yourself with one huge, dramatic, life-altering resolution just because the calendar flipped to January. Sometimes the best move is much simpler: fix a bunch of small things and get a little better overall.<\/p>\n<p>When software release notes say <em>\u201cvarious bug fixes and improvements,\u201d<\/em> you know what that really means. A bunch of small issues were cleaned up. Stability, efficiency, and quality were quietly improved. Some code probably got refactored. Nothing headline-worthy, it just runs better now.<\/p>\n<p>If you approach your habits the same way, it\u2019s a far more realistic (and sustainable) path to growth that doesn\u2019t require a vision board meltdown.<\/p>\n<p>So instead of going full <em>\u201cNew Year, New Me,\u201d<\/em> try this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do a quick bug audit of the friction points in your life, the little things that keep slowing you down.<\/li>\n<li>Pick 1\u20133 small fixes per month, max. Make them specific and trackable: \u201cadd a 10-minute walk after lunch,\u201d not just \u201cget healthier.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Ship improvements, not perfection. If a habit helps even a little, it counts.<\/li>\n<li>Keep a running changelog of what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/li>\n<li>If a habit doesn\u2019t stick, get curious instead of ashamed. It\u2019s not a failure, it\u2019s just a fix that didn\u2019t hold under stress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your year ends with more predictable routines, less background stress, and faster recovery after bad weeks? That\u2019s a major upgrade worth shipping, even if nothing looks flashy from the outside.<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, the only resolution you really need is this:<br \/>\n<strong>\u201cI\u2019ll keep noticing what isn\u2019t working, and gently improve it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After all, you\u2019re running a long-lived system that deserves thoughtful maintenance.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s dive into what\u2019s new in WordPress as we head into 2026, starting with some opportunities to <strong>level up your skills and visibility<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Here\u2019s Your Chance to Upgrade to \u201cWordCamp Speaker\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>If \u201cspeak at a WordCamp someday\u201d has been sitting on your personal backlog of \u201cvarious fixes and improvements\u201d, consider this your nudge. \ud83c\udfa4<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Call for Speakers for WordCamp Europe 2026<\/strong> is officially open!<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s happening June 4-6, 2026 in Krak\u00f3w, Poland, and you\u2019ve got until January 31, 2026 to throw your virtual hat in the ring.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t need to be a household WordPress name, or have a perfectly polished keynote voice. What you DO need is an idea, a perspective, and a willingness to share something useful with the community. You can give a classic 30 minute talk, a quick to-the-point 10 minute lightning talk, or an in-depth workshop to get into the nitty-gritty of your chosen subject.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2026\/call-for-speakers\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Full details here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Also open: the <a href=\"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2026\/call-for-sponsors\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Call for Sponsors<\/a>, if your company wants to support the event and be part of the magic.)<\/p>\n<p>And if the thought of public speaking makes your palms sweat just a little, you\u2019re not alone. It\u2019s not easy to get up in front of a crowd and express your ideas! Fortunately, there\u2019s a new community founded by Jill Binder called Speak Tech Confidently, designed to help folks get more comfortable speaking in tech spaces, with plenty of practical guidance on creating great content and speaking with more clarity and confidence.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/my.speaktechconfidently.com\/communities\/groups\/speaktechconfidently\/private-group\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Level up your public speaking skills here<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Future You on a WordCamp stage might be closer than you think. Even submitting a talk proposal is a great way to level up your courage, so why not go for it?<\/p>\n<h2>Troy Rolls Into WordPress Plugin Distribution<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever thought <em>\u201cI love WordPress, but plugin distribution feels a bit\u2026 centralized,\u201d<\/em> this one\u2019s for you.<\/p>\n<p>A new open-source project called Troy has launched, offering developers a way to distribute and update plugins independently of the WordPress.org plugin directory.<\/p>\n<p>Troy was created by Sybre Waaijer, the developer behind <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/autodescription\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The SEO Framework<\/em><\/a>, and the idea is simple but significant: give plugin authors more control over how their plugins are hosted, updated, and delivered, without relying on WordPress.org as the gatekeeper.<\/p>\n<p>At a high level, Troy lets you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Host your plugin updates yourself<\/li>\n<li>Push updates directly to sites using standard WordPress update mechanisms<\/li>\n<li>Keep things open-source, transparent, and portable<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In other words, your plugin can still <em>feel<\/em> native inside WordPress\u2026 just without having to pass through the main gates.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t a replacement for WordPress.org (and probably won\u2019t be for most plugins), but it <em>is<\/em> an interesting alternative for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>commercial or client-only plugins<\/li>\n<li>niche tools with smaller audiences<\/li>\n<li>developers who want fewer policy constraints<\/li>\n<li>folks thinking seriously about long-term plugin ownership and independence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As you might expect, it\u2019s already sparked some healthy debate around trust, security, discoverability, and what decentralization should look like in the WordPress ecosystem. And if nothing else, it\u2019s a reminder that sometimes, thinking outside the walls can open new doors. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therepository.email\/the-seo-framework-creator-launches-troy-as-alternative-to-wordpress-org-plugin-distribution\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read more about Troy<\/a><br \/>\n\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/sybrew\/troy\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Explore the project on GitHub<\/a><br \/>\n\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/deploytroy.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Download and deploy Troy<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>New Year, New WordPress: What\u2019s Coming in 7.0<\/h2>\n<p>WordPress 7.0 is on the horizon, and the team has some ambitious plans.<\/p>\n<p>Next year will bring three major releases, strategically timed to coincide with flagship events: WordCamp Asia, WordCamp USA, and State of the Word.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a maintenance release for 6.9 is likely to drop in January, fixing post-release bugs and smoothing out any rough edges. (6.9 has been downloaded <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/download\/counter\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">over 13 million times<\/a> as I write this!)<\/p>\n<h3>Plans for The Next Big Glow-Up<\/h3>\n<p>Matias Ventura shared some of the big-ticket items being explored for 7.0, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>More collaboration features<\/strong>, so teams can work together more seamlessly<\/li>\n<li><strong>Notes improvements are planned<\/strong>, adding even more juice to this new feature<\/li>\n<li><strong>An admin area refresh<\/strong> that\u2019ll give a more modern look and feel to the place where we spend <em>a lot<\/em> of time<\/li>\n<li><strong>Customizable keyboard shortcuts<\/strong> for the hyper-productivity nerds<\/li>\n<li><strong>Block API validation levels<\/strong>, so your blocks behave exactly how you expect<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 Full planning details here: <a href=\"https:\/\/make.wordpress.org\/core\/2025\/12\/11\/planning-for-7-0\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WordPress 7.0 Planning<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 And the proposed release schedule: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therepository.email\/proposed-2026-release-schedule-ties-major-wordpress-versions-to-flagship-events\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 WordPress Release Calendar<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s shaping up to be another year of steady improvements. WordPress keeps getting better, one thoughtful fix at a time, powered by love, creativity, and community effort. And if it can, so can you.<\/p>\n<h2>Mind Bloggling Facts &amp; Stats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>WordPress is still the most widely used CMS on the web. According to Cloudflare\u2019s 2025 Radar Year in Review, it\u2019s used by 47% of the web\u2019s top 5,000 sites (although that\u2019s a decrease from 53% last year.) (<a href=\"https:\/\/radar.cloudflare.com\/year-in-review\/2025#website-technologies\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Enterprises are locking it down with WordPress, with 2025 State of Enterprise WordPress Survey data revealing that 95% of organisations plan to stick with it long term. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.therepository.email\/state-of-enterprise-2025-wordpress-usage-deepens-as-long-term-commitment-jumps-to-95\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Knock-Knock. Who\u2019s there? Probably a robot. WP Engine\u2019s 2025 Website Traffic Report shows that non-human requests are accounting for up to 70% of web requests. (<a href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/wp-engine-releases-website-traffic-trends-report\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Blogs &#038; Resources You Shouldn\u2019t Miss<\/h2>\n<p>What will 2026 bring for WordPress? Matt Medeiros hosts a panel discussion where pros <a href=\"https:\/\/thewpminute.com\/the-wp-minutes-wordpress-predictions-for-2026\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">peer into the future and speculate.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Beaver Builder 2.10 has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbeaverbuilder.com\/new-box-module-templates\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">60+ new templates<\/a>, so you can pretend you\u2019re a design genius. (Ngl, those Bento Grids look pretty nice.)<\/p>\n<p>Slower sales for WordPress products don\u2019t <em>necessarily<\/em> mean no demand. Matt Cromwell <a href=\"https:\/\/wpproducttalk.com\/blog\/wordpress-product-go-to-market-2026\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">explains why \u201cremarkable\u201d still matters.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Need the TLDR on what happened in SEO in 2025? Here\u2019s the <a href=\"https:\/\/yoast.com\/seo-in-2025-wrap-up\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">official Yoast wrap-up.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cDisagreement is a feature. Logical fallacies are the bug.\u201d &#8211; Remkus de Vries on <a href=\"https:\/\/remkusdevries.com\/we-all-lose-with-ad-hominem-arguments\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">how we can argue with each other better.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wanna load CSS faster than your mom\u2019s Christmas shortbread disappears? <a href=\"https:\/\/calendar.perfplanet.com\/2025\/how-to-load-css-fast\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read this.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Who says blogging is dead? <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/11\/why-you-should-start-a-blog\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Here\u2019s why it\u2019s still worth starting one in 2026.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Coffee Break Distractions<\/h2>\n<p>A thought-provoking piece on why creativity\u2019s greatest impact can be felt when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designreview.byu.edu\/collections\/restraint-a-key-to-design-success\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">designing within project constraints.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes chubby middle-aged guys <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R-VutFj9K30\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">just want to get their K-pop dance on<\/a>, and we\u2019re here for it. \ud83d\udc85\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n<p>When Typepad shut down, 3,684 blogs dating back to 2005 moved over to WordPress. <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/18\/helping-typepad-blogs-move\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Here\u2019s the story of the epic migration.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Avoid over-committing yourself this year with this handy <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/hotheadhacker\/no-as-a-service\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cno-as-a-service\u201d excuse generator.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of over-committing\u2026 if, like me, you tell yourself you can do 17 hours of work in one afternoon, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/SideProject\/comments\/1pdcwhl\/i_built_a_circular_day_planner_because_i_kept\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">you might need this.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why Jamie Marsland thinks LinkTree is a symptom of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pootlepress.com\/2025\/12\/once-a-year-i-get-to-be-scrooge\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">something \u201cgone badly wrong.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Do you know why the Norwegian navy has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/funny\/comments\/1pgxsf6\/the_delivery_was_on_port\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">barcodes on the sides of all their ships?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>And finally\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/funny\/comments\/1pnltrd\/the_perfect_snow_plow_name_doesnt_ex_i_stand\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The perfect snow plow name doesn\u2019t exi\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Forward it to your favorite WordPress weirdo.<\/strong> \ud83d\udc96<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to DEV. This ain\u2019t your grandma\u2019s newsletter\u2026 unless she codes in WordPress, of course. (In which case, hi Grandma! \ud83d\udc75\ud83c\udffc) Buckle up for the final fortnightly round-up of the year, bringing you the latest tools, events, updates and cool stuff built by smart people. Stick around to the end to see a very good [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1204260,"featured_media":223199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11265],"tags":[],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-224210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1204260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224210"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224221,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224210\/revisions\/224221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224210"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=224210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}