The Blog of Xangis

Most of the websites that I’ve put up, like freewavesamples.com, soundprogramming.net, fictionclassics.com, leftistblogs.com, and dollarcalc.com have been created using the Drupal content management system.

For a change of scenery just as much as for the sake of learning another CMS, the two latest domains I’ve picked up, findmud.com and csharpness.com (don’t bother clicking — there’s no content yet) will be built using Joomla.

I’ve always had a slight dislike of Joomla since the first time I tried it a year or so ago. I installed it, played with it a bit, found it EVEN LESS intuitive than Drupal (which is hard to do), and decided it wasn’t for me.

So why, after a year, would I bother trying again?

If you compare most Drupal sites with most Joomla sites, the Joomla sites are usually quite a bit prettier. This isn’t necessary a limitation of Drupal — any competent artist can make either system look beautiful. However, Joomla seems to have more of a streamlined smoothness to its visual design.

Even so, the main reason that Joomla is even worth learning is that there are so many great modules available for it. There are going to be some things that one CMS will do better than the other thanks to the available add-ins. It would be silly to restrict myself to knowing a single system if I have the opportunity to know both.