

What are your thoughts on Joomla? - theyoungceo

I work extensively in .NET with some background in PHP on the server side. I've never worked with Joomla before and I have a close friend asking me what my thoughts are -- some firm is trying to sell it to him as a CMS that is "as easy to update as a blog". Assume he has zero technical knowledge and is a business guy trying to get a website up. I know he needs a hacker, but focus your comments on how you think the Joomla experience would be for a non-technical user once set up by someone who knows how. The guy is also touting it as a SEO  miracle, bringing search results up several ranks just being installed.<p>Thoughts?
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jonny_noog
Joomla has been lagging behind the curve for some time now. They have tried to
change this with their new 1.5.x releases and I understand that this new
branch has done much to address the issues that Joomla has had for a long
time, but they already lost me before that.

From a hackers POV who is interested in maximum flexibility, and using the
most modern tools for the job that also promote standards compliance, I think
there are much better options out there, such as Drupal (staying in the LAMP
space). Joomla just feels more clunky and legacy to me than other options. I
also really disliked past experiences I've had with the Mambo CMS and Joomla
is a fork of Mambo. There is also more of an "industry" around selling add-on
modules and templates for Joomla, where as just about all modules/templates
for Drupal are free (as in speech and beer).

Joomla would be "as easy to update as a blog" if all you are using it for is
to run a blog. But to be fair, this is generally true of Drupal and other
similar offerings as well.

Neither Joomla or any other CMS is a "SEO miracle, bringing search results up
several ranks just [by] being installed" this is complete bullshit. It comes
down entirely to how the template that the site will use has been designed,
how the content of the site is organised, marked up and optimised, and all the
other normal issues that surround SEO. How well all this comes together of
course comes down to whether the people doing the design/development know what
they're doing.

From a "business guy" POV - who assumedly cares little for such things as
standards compliance and maximum flexibility (he has a specific function to
fill only) - in the end, There would not be a lot of difference between Joomla
and another similarly featured CMS, _as long as the guys providing the
technical skills know their shit_. Depending on your priorities, Joomla is not
inherantly crap, nor is any other CMS a magic bullet. Just make sure that
these guys offering services to your friend are of the afore mentioned type
who know their shit.

But to me, if someone is recommending Joomla as their primary offering, this
does not inspire confidence in me that the people doing the recommending have
their "finger on the pulse" as it were.

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poppysan
Joomla is great. I personally like it as it is sexy for clients and extremely
usable. The look of the site should be custom thought, in my opinion, and he
needs to make sure the developer isn't augmenting a template that thousands
have already used.

