Subtext the .NET Blogging Platform You Never Knew

By Dee-Ann LeBlanc | Published Mar 24, 2009

Subtext .NET Blogging Platform

Usually, when you see terms like "open source," you think Linux and the languages such as PHP, Python and Perl that tend to dominate the open source landscape. However, projects like Subtext (news, site) prove that assumption wrong.

What is Subtext?

Subtext is a .NET blog publishing platform available under the BSD license, forked originally from .TEXT. Led by Senior Program Manager Phil Haack from Microsoft's ASP.NET team, Subtext is a "personal blog publishing platform that focuses on usability, elegance and simplicity."

According to Haack, Subtext is in a "relatively mature state." The project has three primary developers and a number of other contributors, along with 20 to 30 regular participants on the mailing list.

At MIXO9, the annual conference for Microsoft-based web developers, the new version of the Web Platform Installer was launched. With it, you can go to the Windows Web App Gallery, enter the blog category and install Subtext.

Why Subtext?

With the tag phrase "If you’ve ever caught yourself throwing your hands in the air and declaring that you’re going to write your own blogging engine, then Subtext is for you," this personal blogging platform has been in use in some production environments for years.

There are some glitches to be ironed out here and there, though that's pretty much the nature of the programming beast. There have been some problems for those upgrading from 1.x to 2.x, and those who want to install Subtext on GoDaddy Windows host end up needing to do some special things in order to get everything working.

There are some compatibility issues with Internet Explorer 8 (again, no real surprise), and Haack says that he is in the process of doing some code clean-up. Will Subtext continue to grow and gain traction among the Windows community? If its small but loyal fan base is any indication, it's possible.