Its an exciting time in the world of Open Source CMS (Content/Community Management System). Today Drupal released version 6.0 of its award winning software. This release comes fast on the tails of last month's Joomla 1.5 release of their own popular CMS.
There has never been a better time to consider moving to an Open Source CMS solution. I can't speak to the specific strengths of Joomla or the other Open Source CMSs available, but if you are thinking of changing your web site management software or are just beginning your software search, consider the following about Drupal.
Drupal is Mature, Feature Rich, Secure, Supported, Widely Adopted and Free software.
Why should you care about these six strengths? Read on to find out.
Maturity
Drupal celebrated its seventh Birthday this past year. Age is not always a perfect indication of our maturity, but the passage of time provides opportunities to learn and grow, and when we take advantage of those opportunities we mature. Drupal and its development community is no different in this regard. Over the history of Drupal, the Drupal development community has acquired wealth of experience from countless lessons learned and improvements made.
The end result is a mature software product that has a proven record of not only meeting business or functional needs, but also a record of improving itself between releases.
Choosing a mature product provides peace of mind. You don't have to worry that the technology you are choosing is unproven or untested.
Features
Whether its individual blogging, or community building or social network capabilities or something as simple as a way to update your own website without having to call a 'web expert' to do it for you, Drupal has the features you are looking for in a web site platform. With over 1,000 contributed modules that extend its core functionality the number of feature combinations is almost too many to count. And with each new release come new features and improvements like internationalization support for your sites to provide multi-lingual content. Or improved usability and user experience enhancements like drag and drop administration. (Both now available in Drupal 6.0)
A high feature count by itself may not be of benefit to you. But, a high feature count certainly increases the likelihood that there is at least one feature that will provide a benefit so great to you or your organization that you'll wonder why you didn't consider Drupal sooner.
Security
Drupal 6.0 represents the most secure version of Drupal to date. The unfortunate truth is that there are bad guys out there on the internet. Luckily the Drupal community has a dedicated security team that monitors potential security vulnerabilities and informs you if your Drupal powered site is at risk. This security team is also dedicated to improving and enhancing the security of Drupal with every release. And between releases they work tirelessly to provide security patches should a new vulnerability be discovered.
Support
Sometimes, finding quality support or documentation for software isn't that easy after you've installed it. Luckily, Drupal has a massive community of over 200,000 users that provide support directly via forums, or online chats, or Drupal.org documentation efforts, or indirectly via personal blogs, published articles or video and audio podcasts and lessons. Not only that, there are a growing number of companies (like Be Circle) that provide for fee services to get you the answers you need, when you need them.
Wide Adoption
The wide adoption of Drupal is related to the maturity of Drupal mentioned in the first point. Drupal has proven itself time and time again by powering several high profile and high traffic sites on the internet. Sony BMG, , Fast Company, Popular Science and Amnesty International have all chosen Drupal. So have literally thousands of other websites small and large alike.
The waters have been tested. Its safe to take the plunge.
Free
Drupal is Free Open Source software. Not only is it free of licensing fees and free to download ("free as in beer"), but it provides you freedom and liberty to do with the software as you please ("free as in liberty"). If you choose Drupal, you are not obligated to stay with a single hosting company or development shop, you are free to take the Drupal code wherever you want to take it. You are free to extend it or change it without having to ask a vendors permission or worrying about voiding a warranty. You are free to do nearly anything you like.
You don't have to take my word for it. Find out more for yourself.Read the Drupal 6.0 release announcement
Visit Drupal.org
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