Since writing about o2, Automattic’s successor to the P2 theme in 2013, a number of readers have requested updates on the project’s status. When asked about the project in a recent interview, Matt Mullenweg explained that despite loving the project and truly believing in it, work on o2 has shifted to other parts of WordPress.com to focus on the service’s core products.
Saying no is one of the hardest things but I think that’s where great design comes from is when you say no to a thousand things, including the things you love, or you really wanted to do. Saying no to the lame stuff is easy, but saying no to something you really believe in like o2 is much harder but that focus is crucial for creating great products.
Although Mullenweg says anyone on WordPress.com can enable o2, this is not the case. Searching for o2 on WordPress.com generates no results while P2 brings up the original P2 theme.
o2 is used internally at Automattic and the code is available via WordPress.com’s subversion repository. o2 is not listed since it was supposed to be a plugin but the work inside of o2 is listed under P2 Breathe. While you can download the code, it’s developed in such a way that it doesn’t make sense to run it outside of WordPress.com’s infrastructure.
Listen to Mullenweg explain why development resources have shifted away from o2 to WordPress.com’s core products and be sure to check out the full interview.
I suppose half of the reason they stopped is because of Slack, which seems to have gained a bit of traction regarding internal communication.