OpenLampTech No. 220

PHP framework Tempest 3.0 | Two kinds of AI users | New(er) Auttomattic complaints | VillageSQL | Agentic engineering

Feb 20, 2026

Thank you for reading the OpenLampTech newsletter!

If someone awesome shared this newsletter with you and you are not yet subscribed, please use the Subscribe button below and join:

OpenLampTech has sponsorship opportunities for your brand, product, service, or job listing in the weekly newsletter.

As an independent publication, collaboration is very affordable. (See the updated and reduced pricing.)

Sponsor OpenLampTech

All commentary on the below curated content is mine unless otherwise directly quoted.

PHP Framework: Tempest 3.0 brings new error handler

I don’t have any experience with Tempest, which is a newer PHP framework. But I wanted to share with OpenLampTech readers in case some developers are interested.

This article shares information about recent updates to the framework, including:

PHP 8.5 is the mandatory (minimal) version
A new Exception Handler
UUIDs as primary keys and improved ORM performance
Updates for CSRF protection

[heise.de]

Automattic Planned to “Steal Every Single WP Site” From Hosts That Refused Trademark Deals, WP Engine Alleges in Latest Complaint

Looks like some new(er) complaints are floating in the breeze.

I’m not sure how I feel about all of this, and am not choosing any one side.

However, I don’t think any of it is good for the WordPress ecosystem overall.

The author shares a better, understandable breakdown of this latest news.

These are the different sections from the article:

Alleged trademark licensing strategy targeting competitors
Alleged attempt to pressure Stripe to cut ties
Alleged internal admissions of market power
Complaint cites exchanges with other hosting companies
Internal concerns about community reaction

[The Repository]

Roadmap: A new path for MySQL

I’ve just recently learned of VillageSQL. According to the banner on top of the website homepage:

Introducing VillageSQL: A New Path for MySQL in the Agentic AI Era

I feel like this project, and maybe others to come, are in response to how some of the open-source community feel that Oracle’s stewardship of MySQL lately has been questionable.

An article on the blog page has more information about VillageSQL (some text quoted here from the source):

Today, we are launching VillageSQL to close that gap and empower the MySQL community by enabling permissionless innovation via extensions. VillageSQL is the innovation platform for MySQL and is focused on giving MySQL a new path for the agentic AI era.

[villagesql.com]

Dear Oracle, we need to talk about the future of MySQL

I'm seeing more and more of this type of content online in the last couple of weeks. I am somewhat worried about MySQL itself. But there is MariaDB, you can port your applications over to it as well.

I've also recently seen where former MySQL community evangelists have moved over to MariaDB, and that is indeed telling.

[The Register]