Arthur's opinion

[Admin]

Many people asked me for my opinion recently since the core development team left Miro. I told them all the same: I am not working with Mambo anymore. My customers needed a professional Content Management System and Mambo never adressed these needs (barrier free layout, user handling, unlimited category deepth, multilanguage & multidomain capability, etc.) in the past. Therefore I sadly had to do all my recent projects with other CMS like Typo3 and Reddot. However, ask many asked for my opinion, I will tell you what I think.

At the moment I consider Mambo a nice playtool and nothing more. It had it's chance, but did not use this chance. I always warned people about Miro's influence and their aim to go into a commercial direction. Today I see the people who laughed at me months ago not laughing anymore but starting a new system called Joomla.

Although I personally believe the Development Team decided right to separate the development from Miro's commercial efforts, this split will throw the system back for many month again. It will take it's time untill people understand what had happened the last few months. Some will never realise it. It will take some time to rename dozens of Books about Mambo, untill thousands of websites around the globe update their weblinks, etc.

At the moment Mabo/Joomla is in a very dangerous situation. It is unclear, what Miro's plans are for the future. Everyone of us, you, me, the developers, builded up a brand (Mambo), which is worth a lot money. Miro would be stupid if they wouldn't use this value we all build up. So it's pretty sure that we will have two "Mambos" in the future, the Miro Mambo and the core developers Joomla!.

Although the Developers do their best to avoid the word "fork" stripped to the bones Joomla it is nothing else than a fork. This definitely leads to a community split and this weakens the whole CMS even more.

So, finally, what do we have at the moment? On the one hand we have Miro's Mambo. The actual version 4.5.3 beta is nothing more than a very buggy alpha release, far from being finished and far from being useable on productive websites. Miro has only a few commercial developers, which will lead to a slow and cost intesive development. So it will take some time untill we will see a new "Mambo" and it maybe not free anymore as Miro has to pay their developers.

On the other hand we have Joomla!, which at least has a large development team. But Joomla is completely new and therefore has to gain a good reputation from scratch. It will take some time untill Joomla! will reach the same level of public attention the name "Mambo" has at the moment. And Joomla! also has the same old problems (mentioned above), which have not been adressed by the actual development for many, many months.

If you ask me Mambo/Joomla! has reached a crossroad. In the past many things have been discussed and many claims have been staked. Now it is time for Mambo/Joomla! to finally adress the old and well known weaknesses of the system. Only then Mambo/Joomla! has the chance to move from a semi-professional to a professional level. But this has to happen very fast, as otherwise people will choose another CMS.

Please note: This is only my personal opinion about the actual Mambo / Joomla! situaton. I don't tell you any facts, but just my personal thoughts. Your opinion may vary and you are free to add it after this post.

[mekele]

Another way to interpret the fork--as much of this language is evolutionary--is that it will increase competition and a better CMS, namely Joomla, will emerge very quickly. The paradigm you are using is Darwinian where there will be a long period of adaptation before Joomla reaches the level that mambo had. It's a gradualist approach. But that paradigm cannot explain the very rapid assurgence and proliferation of open source technology in a very short period of time. My take is that if Joomla languishes as you say there will be abandonment. But it has community and if people see it languishing they will work harder. That is my opinion.

Does the pessimism mean that you will no longer develop products for either mambo or Joomla? I am a customer here.

[thethepapapa]

Finally a note that I'm content to just let resonate.

Welcome back, and well said.

thethe papapa

[Mac]

OK Arthur, your opinion is important for a lot of us. Your contribute in Mambo community's growing is invaluable, so I have another question: what about the mambers.com and Mamboportal.com destiny? You have taken some decision, in matter?
Tnx in advance for your time

Mac

[quiquedcode]

nice to know Arthur...
You opinion is a mustread for all the old mambers and joomlers

So, you advise Typo3 and Reddot as pro CMSs...

Which one do you advise for mambers ? ...