This is all a tough row to hoe. Where to start... Hmmm...

WP began as a blog platform and now resembles more a Content Management System (CMS). The WP team has done a good job at this transition though not as magnificent as is often witnessed in commercial development. That is to say, maintaining a backward compatibility level that would be acceptable in a commercial software application like say MS Word. This is however common in open source where there are countless developers and why coding standards are developed.

To make things more complex its built atop a LAMP/WAMP platform basically. While Linux/Windows, Apache and mySQL (Oracle) stay on course PHP is all too often all over the roads. PHP has been the staple of indie web development for years with pluthers of other languages existing (Ruby, Java, Go, on and on) but Java being the only other free language suitable and widely supported out there. The performance characteristics are drastic in both speed, capabilities and ram usage. I know Java, PHP, Ruby, C++, Visual Basic, Visual C# etc. Java runs rings around PHP in all respects and of course so does C++. PHP for example could never run "eBay" nor could it handle lets say AT&T's service/support/consumer front end network. Thats all Java.

For these indie open source gigs a developer or theme designer, plugin coder etc. would have a great deal more to learn and cope with with a language that is enterprise capable, not loosely typed and has a much more intrinsic learning curve.

Enter Microsoft. Microsoft has opened up its .NET framework Open Source stating its for sake of the MONO project (.NET on Linux). With the Express editions of Visual Studio (Microsofts Development Environment) being free to use all this becomes a real game changer.

The not too distant future will see Microsoft web applications more and more over-taking the PHP world. Why? First, the development environment is far far far superior to anything out there hands down. Using Visual Studio is consistent, TRULY integrated, robust and it "makes sense" when using it be that for web apps or client/server apps or standalone PC applications. .NET in itself is far far far more robust in its capabilities than anything else out there. The only competitor would be Java and its piecemeal, just the Lamp stack is piecemeal. Separate editors, debuggers, profilers, this/that. Not so with Visual Studio.

As I develop back and forth between languages using Visual Studio .vs. other solutions feels alot like DOS .vs. Windows in many ways.

Now it WAS the case that Visual C# or Visual Basic code was slower than PHP and more memory hungry. Thats changed. C# now outperforms PHP in both speed and memory usage and this curve will continue. The reason why is due to the software architecture (runtime) design. PHP is not capable of massive change of its internal architecture without scrapping 80% of its core. .NET / MSIL on the other hand is extraordinarily flexible so what we will see is speed and resource usage continue to move fowards with .NET.

Its been Microsofts plan all along. Additionally comes the unification of smart technologies. Phone, Tablet, TV, Game System, Smart Watch, Smart glasses, Smart cars and more. Do anything, anywhere, anytime. There is only one entity who has the "complete environment" for development to do this and that (unfortunately) is Microsoft. Google, Oracle and a few others are attempting chase this but they are literally years and years behind in development in comparison. The one entity who actually is not believe it or not is Amazon whom does at least presently not offer their propriety based development environment to anyone except enterprise partners and only a few at that.

So whats this all mean to Wordpress!?!?!?!? You may be asking. ALOT.

Yes,,, It is true that developers (the WP Core) may not be heading in features or directions that vertical market or even mass market users and/or independent Software Vendors (ISV's) may like. Marketing and software development are worlds apart. Most coders dont have a clue about marketing even though they think they do. They think it simple. Marketing is more complex than software engineering. I know both. Schooled in both. Marketing is chock full of variables as every person is different. Software engineering is far far far more finite in its boundaries. Also why a great person at marketing dictates salary.

But, the WP core has clearly done a far better than average job considering they are coders otherwise Wordpress would not enjoy the marketshare it has. They are somewhere's between drupal core and joomla core. The drupal core are all intense coder beasts only recently going, "Oh... you mean others that are not coders want use Drupal?" and working hard to make it so before they have no market share.

Joomla core on the other hand are "users" and ego flies. Not users in the aspect of users of their software. Uh uh. Users of the developer community. They jet set around the globe raking in money for seminars regarding Joomla use whilst the developer community is what makes Joomla a well regarded CMS and they dont treat that developer community well. In fact, too busy to even document their code WELL for those developers, they want the developer community to document their code! I know, I was asked. Unreal. Imagine walking into Adobe as a developer and saying, "I am a really good coder, see, here is some of my work. If you are going to hire me however I want other people to document my API's, my code etc". RIGHT!

The Wordpress core quite clearly realizes that its important to make the RIGHT steps and that means take the time to think and do things right. Its not an accident or circumstance that has resulted in WP being used on 20% of sites. In fact, its remarkable.

BUT!

I would argue that in order for Wordpress to MAINTAIN long term its market share they need transition and I do mean START NOW. Transition? Yes. Have a few core developers or a core developer stay with the LAMP/WAMP development and bring in a few noobs. The others, get to work on a .NET Wordpress ASAP.

As the "Open source" world in .NET continues to gain momentum its going to become a steam roller. Its not a matter of "if or but" at all, its "when".

The capabilities of web applications and indeed PC applications in the cloud define what tomorrows information technology will be and the integration thereof. ANYTHING outside of that will in time fade away. Just as mobile technology has changed the face of information technology its next step is integration... The unification of the smart technologies. This is why Sony for example will not be making a Playstation 5. They have no integration partners and making that worse their number #1 competitor Microsoft is literally at the head of the class in technology unification. This also is why Microsoft could care less if Windows Mobile (Phone and Tablet presently) is a distant third to Apple and Android. The market will "come to them": as unification marches forward.

The release of the .NET core as open source is a HUGE HUGE cannon shot towards that. 10 years back ANY developer in the know would jsut say, "No Way Microsoft EVER would do that".

They have and the reason they have is to get the PHP, Java open source developers to jump ship and they are doing just that.

The development environment is simply superior and up to the task of any type of development. Enterprise development, distributed application development, web applications, mobile applications, Windows applications and much more all rolled into a highly cohesive development and INFORMATION INTERCHANGE environment.

Wordpress with its high market availability it enjoys needs start working on the jump from LAMP to ASP.NET and thus position itself as an enterprise, unification ready web application. Simple (or complex) as that. If not what will occur is as .NET open source grows especially due to MONO some other entity will make the CMS that erodes the market share eventually resulting in WP being orphaned. Joomla and Drupal are already dead. They are just too short sighted to actually see it.

Wordpress has enough market that there is time to make the move so to speak and in doing so enjoy some level of dominance in the smart technology unification that is coming down the road.