Is Drupal the best CMS or is it Joomla?

When I read forums, sometimes I see people asking for advice on which CMS would be adapted for their particular project, and often there are replies of what looks like Joomla fanatics who answer without any argument that Joomla is the best CMS.

I can’t stand it because I know it’s wrong, but then I’m not paid to promote any particular CMS nor am I paid by the original poster to convince him to choose the best solution for his project. Because let’s be real here, for most common uses, from people who have no experience of CMS, Joomla will do the job as well as a number of other CMS solutions!

Drupal LogoI say that Drupal is the best CMS and I can back it up, but anyone who had first hand experience with both CMS can state the same as me: Joomla (and previously Mambo) is not as good a work of art as Drupal, it is less efficient and is less flexible. The positive thing about Joomla is that the graphic design part of their user community is clearly more developped than Drupal’s and probably even the total user community is larger than Drupal’s because when you look at both projects from an untrained eye Joomla look far better out of the box. Joomla also have tons of modules/add-ons to add features and so has Drupal. In fact there are some “contests” organized on the web and sometimes Drupal wins, sometimes Joomla wins. But honestly if a contest has public vote, then what? You have the biggest user community who can go to a website and vote and then you win? OK, this is lame. The next one in line is the Packtpub Award with voting closing on october 26th and if you vote you could win a….. yes a stupid iPod, of course what do you think? It’s not christmas! The award has a total fund of $20 000 in prizes you get to win a stupid iPod, life’s cruel sometimes… And if Joomla wins, then life can be really cruel sometimes! Because, come on! Drupal is clearly better, even a canadian recognizes Drupal is the best! Although finally he says that he would recommend Joomla over Drupal for an “organization looking for a CMS to merely manage the pages and content on your website”. In fact to merely manage the pages and content on your website, clearly any CMS would do the job, hopefully. But Drupal can do it too -)

So the user community is more vibrant on Joomla, but the code of the CMS isn’t as clean and efficient as Drupal. In Drupal the administration panel is part of the website, it’s based on user’s rights to see or not to see the administration menus. On Joomla it’s more classic, you access the admin panel and manage things from here. The admin panel looks nicer on Joomla too, so you understand why many people believe it is the best CMS, it attracts the eye.

There’s is something that will change things a little, it’s that Joomla will very soon have a major update with the 1.5 version, and Drupal will continue to improve with Drupal 6 before the end of the year. The major update of Joomla is worth installing and try out. But for sure Drupal 6 is the CMS to install to base your future projects on.

It’s simple, several years ago I had one Drupal and one Mambo (before being called Joomla) sites, and after that most of my projects have been done with Drupal, it’s so versatile, so flexible, so clear and works like a charm, I never had anything to complain about, it can do so much more than what I have time to implement!

OK, Joomla fanatics can say exactly the same thing as I said, but for me Drupal is the best CMS, if you’re new to CMS and want to start a website, you cannot make a mistake by choosing Drupal and start to learn it. Anyway it doesn’t hurt to install both CMS and start 2 websites instead of one, but if you have that kind of motivation and time in your hands, then you can learn deeper and deeper about Drupal, you’ll love it!

To rest my case I’ll send to you to more reading dealing with Drupal vs Joomla:

Source: http://blog-money-wiki.com/blog/2007/10/is-drupal-the-best-cms-or-is-it-joomla.php

Drupal 6.0 released

After one year of development, Drupal 6.0 is ready to release to the world. Thanks to the tireless work of the Drupal community, over 1,600 issues have been resolved during the Drupal 6.0 release cycle. These changes are evident in Drupal 6’s major usability improvements, security and maintainability advancements, friendlier installer, and expanded development framework. Further, from bug fix to feature request, these issues follow-through on the Drupal project’s continued commitment to deliver flexibility and power to themers and developers.

Today, Drupal powers sites including the homepages of Warner Brothers Records, The New York Observer, Fast Company, Popular Science, and Amnesty International and project sites by SonyBMG, Forbes, Harvard University, and more. Drupal can be used to create personal weblogs (Tim Berners-Lee), deliver podcasts (TWIT.tv), connect online communities (SpreadFireFox.com), form artist collectives (Terminus 1525) or inform the masses (The Onion).

What’s new

The Drupal 6.0 release contains many improvements, some visible from the first click, and others hidden beneath the hood. For a quick video tour, check out Greg Knaddison’s “New features in Drupal 6.0 screencast“, or one of the other screencasts linked below. While the complete list of changes is too lengthy to list here, we have included just a few of the reasons we’re so excited about Drupal 6.

Please visit http://drupal.org/drupal-6.0 for more information.

Document Freedom Day DFD

26 March: A global day for document liberation
Sign up your DFD team today!

The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation with grassroots action for promotion of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general. The DFD was initiated and is supported by a group of organisations and companies, including, but not limited to, the Free Software Foundation Europe, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, IBM, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems, Inc.

On 26 March 2008, the Document Freedom Day will provide a global rallying point for Document Liberation and Open Standards. It will literally give teams around the world the chance to “hoist the flag”: A “DFD Starter Pack” containing a flag, t-shirt, leaflets and stickers is in preparation and is planned to be sent out in the first weeks of March to the first 100 teams that sign up. Sixteen teams already signed up during the preparation phase of the DFD prior to this release. Sign your team up now!

“We’re proud to support this global effort to encourage open and inclusive information exchange,” said Marino Marcich, Managing Director, Open Document Format Alliance. “Document freedom means creating,

exchanging, and preserving your electronic documents without having to buy software from a particular vendor.”

“Data lock-in and subsequent vendor lock-in are some of the most severe issues users are facing today,” says FSFE president Georg Greve. “Yet most people only realise this connection when it is too late and they have effectively lost control over their own data. We are supporting the Document Freedom Day to help raise awareness for this issue by starting with something that affects pretty much all users of computers: text documents, spreadsheets and presentations.”

“Free document formats and open standards are important elements in the continued expansion of the global open source community,” said Tom Rabon, executive vice president, Corporate Affairs at Red Hat. “Red Hat strongly supports Document Freedom Day and encourages participation by all who look forward to the day when documents are controlled by those who own them, not necessarily by those who create the technology to access those documents.”

Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer, Sun Microsystems stated, “As I explained in my paper “Freedom to Leave“, it’s fundamental in the emerging market for people to be free to use any software they desire tohandle their data. I fully support the goals of Document Freedom .”

Alexandre Oliva of the Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA) comments: “When you save your documents using a Free Open Standard format such as ODF, you’re also saving your own future, ensuring your continued ability to access, decode and convert their contents.”

Graham Taylor Director of OpenForum Europe: “OpenForum Europe applauds the announcement of Document Freedom Day. The whole essence of ‘openness’ is captured by the right of users, citizens, governments… to be able to freely access and exchange documents todayand in the future. Nothing gives greater meaning to the prevalent danger of lock-in to proprietary solutions, and for the need for Government to act now.”

About Document Freedom Day:

The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general. The DFD is supported by a large group of organisations and individuals, including, but not limited to Ars Aperta, COSS, Esoma, Free Software Foundations Europe and Latin America, IBM, NLnet, ODF Alliance, OpenForum Europe, OSL, iMatix, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, Inc., The Open Learning Centre, Opentia, Estandares Abiertos.

The list of DFD supporting groups can be found at
http://documentfreedom.org/Who

The list of DFD teams is available at
http://documentfreedom.org/Category:Teams

Further information:
http://documentfreedom.org

Contact:
contact@documentfreedom.org

BiBi

Sau bao tháng ngày chờ đợi, thế là cuối cùng, ngày 22/02, gia đình tôi đã đón chào thành viên mới rồi.
Bé Bi sinh ra nặng 3.5kg. Giống bố y hệt, ít nhất là ở phần quan trọng nhất 🙂
Mời mọi xem những bức hình đầu tiên của bé và chia vui cùng gia đình chúng tôi:
Album BiBi

WinMerge – powerful FOSS visual tool for files/folders differencing and merging

WinMerge is an Open Source visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. It is highly useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.
Key Features:

  • Visual differencing and merging of text files
  • Flexible editor with syntax highlighting, line numbers and word-wrap
  • Handles DOS, UNIX and MAC text file formats
  • Unicode support
  • Difference pane shows current difference in two vertical panes
  • Location pane shows map of files compared
  • Highlights differences inside lines in file compare
  • Regular Expression based file filters in directory compare allow excluding and including items
  • Moved lines detection in file compare
  • Creates patch files
  • Shell Integration (supports 64-bit Windows versions)
  • Rudimentary Visual SourceSafe and Rational ClearCase integration
  • Archive file support using 7-Zip
  • Plugin support
  • Localizable interface via resource DLL
  • Online manual and installed HTML Help manual

More information: http://winmerge.org/

New Features for Zimbra Collaboration Suite 5.0

Sunnyvale, Calif. – February 5, 2008 – Zimbra, a Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) company, and the leader in open source, next-generation e-mail, today announced the availability of Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 5.0. ZCS 5.0 includes hundreds of enhancements that expand Zimbra’s access across desktops and devices while setting the standard for Web-based productivity in a business environment, and showcases Yahoo!’s dedication to providing world-class e-mail and collaboration services.

Enhancements in ZCS 5.0 extend Zimbra’s best-of-breed anywhere access on the desktop, including support for Microsoft Outlook 2007, and on virtually any device, with support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server, J2ME-enabled handsets such as the Motorola RAZR, and a new version of ZCS for mobile web browsers. New features in the award-winning Zimbra AJAX Web client include instant messaging, briefcase, and task applications as well as Zimbra Desktop, the world’s first offline-capable Web 2.0 collaboration experience.

New features in ZCS 5.0 include:

  • Task Lists. Off by default when you upgrade. A new Tasks tab is added to the application tabs. The tasks list feature includes the ability to create multiple task lists, create tasks, mange a task, including setting the priority and tracking the progress
  • Documents. On by default when you upgrade. Documents is a document sharing and collaboration application that gives you a central place on the Zimbra Web Client to develop, organize, and share information
  • Briefcase. Off by default when you upgrade. Briefcase lets you save files on the Zimbra Web Client so that you can access them whenever you log on to the ZWC
  • Delegated Mailbox. Users can share any of their email folders, including the Inbox and sub-folders
  • Users can be notified when their mailbox is almost full (quota feature)
  • Calendar entries can be marked private or public
  • Search for an appointment up to 180 days in the future
  • Photos and images can be uploaded and synced to the address book contacts list
  • Message priority can be set
  • Instant notification of email messages can be enabled
  • Major changes to the administration console include:
    • Layout of the administration console has been improved. You can open more than one function at a time. Tabs are opened above the Content pane
    • Search queries can be saved
    • Search for all administrators and domain administrators on ZCS
    • Last login time is displayed from the administration console Accounts content pane
    • Default time zone set in the COS/Admin can now be changed by users. This timezone is used for Zimbra Mobile and the standard Zimbra Web client
    • Monitoring, Server Statistics for individual servers now includes a Sessions tab that displays information about active web client, administrator and IMAP sessions
    • Certificates can be managed and installed from the administration console
  • The Jetty Web server is now used as the server container that the Zimbra software runs within. Reference to this servlet is called mailboxd
  • Domain name can be changed from the zmprov CLI
  • Ngnix is used to support more scalable POP/IMAP proxy
  • Domain’s status can be set, including status of Suspended
  • Account level logging can be configured
  • ZCS HTTP mode now includes Redirect. Redirect mode redirects any users connecting via HTTP to a HTTPS connection
  • If more than one language locale has been installed on ZCS, users have the option to select the locale that is different from the browser language settings from the Preferences, General tab
  • Major import and migration feature enhancements:
    • Tasks can be imported/migrated
    • The types of items (appointments, email, contacts, and tasks) to import can be selected
    • Photos associated with contacts can be imported/migrated
    • Appointments and tasks private status is retained

Top 50 Proprietary Software and their Open Source alternatives

Basics
1. Windows Vista OS to Ubuntu OS
2. Internet Explorer Browser to Firefox Browser

Office Suites
3. Microsoft Office to OpenOffice
4. Mactopia to NeoOffice

Office Tools
5. MathWorks MATLAB to Scilab
6. Microsoft Access to Kexi
7. Microsoft Word to OpenOffice Writer
8. Microsoft Excel to OpenOffice Calc
9. Microsoft Visio to Dia

Productivity
10. Blackboard to Moodle
11. Box to Cabos
12. Microsoft Project to Open Workbench
13. Mindjet to FreeMind

Graphic Programs
14. Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape
15. Adobe PhotoShop to GIMP
16. Adobe Premiere to Avidemux
17. AutoCAD to Archimedes
18. Microsoft PowerPoint to OpenOffice Impress
19. Microsoft Paint to Tux Paint

Web Editors
21. Adobe GoLive CS2 to Mozilla SeaMonkey
22. Adobe Dreamweaver to NVU
23. Macromedia Flash Professional to OpenLaszlo
24. Microsoft Frontpage to Bluefish
25. Windows Notepad to ConTEXT
26. Altova XMLSpy to XML Copy Editor

Publishing
27. Adobe Acrobat to PDFCreator
28. Adobe Framemaker to DocBook
29. Microsoft Publisher to Scribus

Communications
30. AIM to Pidgin
31. FeedDemon to RSS Bandit
32. Microsoft MSN Messenger to aMSN
33. Microsoft Outlook to Thunderbird
34. Skype to Wengophone

Media
35. iTunes to Songbird
36. Nero Burning Rom to K3b
37. Quicktime to Darwin Streaming Server
38. TiVo Desktop to Galleon.tv
39. Windows Media Player to Miro

Utilities
40. CuteFTP to Filezilla
41. iBackup to ZManda
42. Norton Ghost to Partition Image
43. Rational Purify to Valgrind
44. WinZip to 7-Zip

Security
45. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal to Winpooch
46. McAfee VirusScan to ClamWin
47. Norton Personal Firewall to WIPFW

Financial
48. Authorize.net to OpenSSL
49. Microsoft Money (Plus) to TurboCash
50. Quickbooks to Compiere

Microsoft and Sun, the Real Story

So one day, Scott McNealy, founder and chairman of Sun, read in his morning newspaper how the use of Java was rapidly diminishing, courtesy of something called ‘The LAMP Stack’. Furiously, he called his accountant.

Scott: “I knew this Java thing was a bad idea in the first place! I see only one solution. We need to buy this Lamp!”
Accountant: “Euh, LAMP is not a company. It’s an acronym. It’s Linux , Apache, MySQL and PHP”
Scott: “Then buy me Linux!”
Accountant: “But we still have this Solaris thing..”
Scott: “Then buy me Apache!”
Accountant: “That’s a foundation. Nothing to buy there.”
Scott: “Then buy me MySQL!”
Accountant: “We don’t do databases.”
Scott: “It’s a database?”
Accountant: “What rock have you been living under?”
Scott: “Sweet. I can own the Lamp AND piss off Oracle at the same time!” (waves fake plastic magic wand) “Make it so!”

And so it happened.

Ten days later, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was reading the CIO Magazine, and read about this interesting thing called PHP, that according to the author you could use to write “WHAT?!”. “WHAT?!”, obviously a highly advanced and evolved version of “Hello World”, caught his attention. So he called Bill Gates.

Steve: “Hey, you heard about this PHP thing?”
Bill: “Pee Age Pee? You’re not that old yet, are you?”
Steve: “What? No, wait, it’s a programming language, apparently better than ASP.NET.”
Bill: “Who cares if it’s better. I mean; we made the worst operating systems ever and still rule. (Checked out Leopard yet? It is SO cool.)”
Steve: “I don’t know Bill… remember that internet thing that we didn’t know about years ago? Kind of nearly missed the boat there.”
Bill: “Right. Didn’t we solve that in the same way? Worst browser, highest market share, that sort of thing?”
Steve: “Yes we did, but then we also didn’t know about this ‘mp3’ thing until it was too late.”
Bill: “We did manage to make Zune the worst player, but somehow we’re not market leader. Guess we got sloppy?”
Steve: “Maybe it’s just different times. Maybe we should have a different strategy.”
Bill: “Ok, so let’s just buy PHP then.”
Steve: “It’s not a company. But Encarta says it’s written by a Rasmus Lerdorf.”
Bill: “So let’s hire him.”
Steve: “Tried that. Didn’t want to join. Can’t blame him, works at Yahoo.”
Bill: “Then I guess we’ll have to buy Yahoo.”

So it happened.

Two of the most controversial announcements of this month, and both appear to be part of devious plots to take over the LAMP stack. What’s next? My prediction: Red-Hat buys Zend; Oracle buys Red-Hat; Sun and IBM join forces to buy Oracle, Microsoft buys Sun, kills IBM and peace is restored in the galaxy.

P.S. Can you imagine Microsoft running sites like Flickr? These guys invented MS Paint!