Why Drupal?
Submitted by Larry Cannell on Thu, 09/09/2004 - 05:46.
Somebody recently sent me email asking if they should use Drupal or
EZPublish for a site they were publishing. I thought my response might
be useful to others looking into Drupal.
Although I can't say that I have done an exhaustive evaluation of all of the Open Source content management systems (or even all of the PHP-based CMSes) I have looked at quite a few Open Source projects and I've come up with a loose set of criteria for judging which projects seem to have the most promise and present the least amount of risk.
My comments below are based on my experience implementing Drupal. I am not a contributor to the project other than through posts like this.
Here is how I responded:
Although I can't say that I have done an exhaustive evaluation of all of the Open Source content management systems (or even all of the PHP-based CMSes) I have looked at quite a few Open Source projects and I've come up with a loose set of criteria for judging which projects seem to have the most promise and present the least amount of risk.
My comments below are based on my experience implementing Drupal. I am not a contributor to the project other than through posts like this.
Here is how I responded:
I
think it is easy to get caught up in comparing products
feature-by-feature. If any product is being actively developed new
features will always show up. If it is not being actively developed
then don't use it.
With Open Source projects there are bigger risks. Like the product not being around at some point in the future. Or, the code becomes a mess and impossible to update or extend. Even worse, a vulnerability is found and no one is around to help close it.
Also, all of these products are "underdogs" when compared to commercial alternatives, particularly when you consider how Microsoft is marketing Sharepoint.
Here is what I like to see in Open Source projects and how Drupal compares.
With Open Source projects there are bigger risks. Like the product not being around at some point in the future. Or, the code becomes a mess and impossible to update or extend. Even worse, a vulnerability is found and no one is around to help close it.
Also, all of these products are "underdogs" when compared to commercial alternatives, particularly when you consider how Microsoft is marketing Sharepoint.
Here is what I like to see in Open Source projects and how Drupal compares.
- Quality of the code. Drupal's code is extremely high quality and well architected. It is extendable because of its modularity.
- Extensibility. See above. The number of high-quality user-contributed modules is impressive. Installing them is a breeze.
- Level
of acceptance/use. Drupal is widely held in high-regard. See Doc
Searls' IT Garage or CivicSpace for examples of this but there are many
more examples of popular sites running Drupal.
- Activity of developer community. Drupal is strong here. It helps that the developers use a common cvs repository to share code and ideas.
- Leadership. Dries does a great job leading and focusing the extended team. The discipline he enforces is critical. This is an important piece missing from most Open Source projects.
- Teamwork. Drupal has a strong core team that works well together.
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