Tuxedo T-Shirts Are NOT OKAY

Have you ever seen those t-shirts with a tuxedo printed on the front of them? I’m pretty sure the vibe that guys are going for when they wear them is, “Hey look, I’m classy but fun!” Unfortunately, the message that comes across is, “I want to seem like I’m presentable, but without having to actually exert any effort!”

It’s an easy trap to fall into, and it’s worth mentioning because the same thing happens in software. Making a t-shirt can be fun, easy, even attractive. But it’s not the same thing as getting fitted for a real suit. (I learned the difference by reading blogs like the Movable Type-powered English Cut.) Making something that’s cool and fun isn’t the same as making something that’s durable, reliable, and ready for formal occasions.

Which brings us, in a somewhat roundabout fashion, to blogging. We’ve been working on Movable Type for a long time — more than half a decade. When we started, simply making cool stuff was enough. But as we’ve worked to make a reliable business tool, we sometimes have to make choices that balance coolness with reliability. For example, a few years ago, people really, really wanted support for Daypop and Blogdex built in to the platform. Those requests are… somewhat less common today. Fashion can be fickle. You can dress up your Hanes crew-neck, but you won’t be fooling anybody.

(There’s some kind of story here about plugins being like the Bedazzler for your t-shirt blog, but this analogy is getting kind of painful already, isn’t it?)

Still, sometimes you just want to throw on a t-shirt; It’s good enough for hanging out with your friends. And that’s why we’ve got different versions of Movable Type. Movable Type Enterprise is designed to be that custom-tailored suit, perfectly integrated with all your other professional tools. And at the other extreme is the free personal version of MT: No limits on what you can do with it, but probably not the one to use if you’re, say, talking to the Dalai Lama.

We figured it was worth taking the time to explain why we’ve got a few different versions of Movable Type, appropriate for whatever you’re doing. And we’ll talk a little bit more in the future about how we can make the personal versions of MT a little more human, a little cooler, while still keeping MT Enterprise a rock-solid, predictable platform.

So, if you’ve ever wondered whether the same wardrobe can support high fashion and just hanging out with friends, fret not. But if you think one size fits all and that you can just throw on a t-shirt and pretend it’s a tux… you might want to reevaluate your sartorial selections.

Update: Thanks to Mena for a quick correction — tuxedo t-shirts are totally okay for cute little dogs like Rudy, who is one of our favorite Six Apart office dogs. Sorry, Rudy!