Open Source CMS Done Right

Okay...the time has come for me to formally endorse a content management system.

I have come across ALOT of content applications in the 7 years of developing on the web. I have even built some of my own from scratch.

In my career I have used Interwoven, Hot Banana, Web Side Story, Plone, Drupal, Post Nuke, and a host of smaller PHP and .NET applications.

About three years ago I came across an open source CMS that went by the name of Mambo. While at the time I was impressed with the functionality, i was not entirely sold on the ease of implementation and the community was somewhat fractured.

So I went on about my search and settled on some smaller open source program that did "just enough to get the job done".

Fast forward to about 6 months ago where I revisited Mambo. It appeared that the community had finally split into 2 camps...the new community calling itself Joomla. I decided I would take them out for a spin.

What I learned right away was that this new Joomla application was an unbelieveable improvement with a huge community of developers and users. Mambo was improved as well - but the community seemed to be lagging while Joomla seemeed to be thriving.

If any of you have experience directly with open source applications it is no secret that they are only as good as the community supporting it. Well, Joomla is the best supported application I have ever come across. The community is rich and the list of extensions run a mile long. Chances are good that if you need it, someone has developed it.

I have developed a handful of websites using Joomla now, and have to say that I cant imagine going back. I was recently asked to do some work in Hot Banana again and it was so painful to navigate and customize. Not to mention that its written in Cold Fusion...yuck

Implementing Joomla is easy once you understand how it works... and believe me, its worth it. You need no direct knowledge of programming to install it and creating templates is fun and easy. Joomla is a simple content management system that can "extended" to make it as complex as you need it to be. Think about Firefox and all its extensions and you will get a good idea of how Joomla works.

So I highly recommend Joomla when you decide to navigate the murky road of CMS. I have used my share of them and must tell you that it is heads and tails above all open source... as well as most commercial applications. So dont spend all your money on a proprietary CMS, instead donate to Open Source Matters (the not-for-profit responsible for Joomla) download the program and benefit from the community of thousands and the hundreds of open source extensions that Joomla offers

Its no wonder Joomla was awarded the best Open Source CMS for 2006. You should check it out!