Why You Should Be Excited About Joomla! |
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The Joomla CMS offers near unlimited possibilities to an amazing range of users. If you havn't heard about this truly versitile content management system, please, read on!
What is Joomla?
I think you get the picture, the point I am making here is that Joomla allows for a virtually unlimited amount of variety. Joomla = Open Source
Joomla is GrowingJoomla has an rather interesting history dating back as far as seven years under the name Mambo. The short history begins in August of 2005 when Mambo's then-core developers forked from Mambo and formed The OSM Development Team (OpenSourceMatters). Since then its inception, Joomla has grown at an constant rate, and many have reason to believe that it will continue to grow in popularity and versatility. At the present time, the Joomla.org forums boasts 125,817 registered members and 957,000 posts - pretty significant. Check out the Google search trend in comparison with other popular CMS systems:
I think the graph above speaks for itself; Joomla is growing at a steady rate. Joomla Accessibility
Joomla is Highly Configurable and Scalable
Whether your building a website to show off your amateur photography skills, or a large commercial eCommerce site - Joomla can work for your needs. Conclusion
           
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Allow me to state up front that yes, I am a bit biased in my thinking. Perhaps is is because Joomla has given me the tools to quit my 9 to 5, or maybe I'm blinded by the sheer amount of community support this content management system offers - regardless, I believe I hold some valid points. Please continue to learn more about this rapidly growing CMS, and why I sincerely believe anyone interested in the future of the internet should be just a little excited.
Keeping it simple, Joomla is a content management system. Basically, a program that runs on a web server, and yep..you guessed it, manages content. I like to think of it as an operating system for an web site. While there are many CMS systems out there, Joomla brings to the table a mind blowing amount of extensions (at the time of this writing, Joomla.org currently hosts 1982 extensions). These extensions are what truly empowers the Joomla system by offering virtually unlimited flexibility in how you create, manage and display web content. Before I lose your attention, lets look at a few uses which are well within the possibilities of Joomla:
Joomla is freely distributed under the General Public License (GPL). What this means to the average Joe is that you are absolutely free to download, use and distribute it. The only caveat is that if you distribute it, modified or otherwise, you must do so under the same license. There are more stipulations, but the basic idea is this; Joomla is free, you can do what you want, but it must remain free. Theres also been some recent changes and debate regarding third party extensions and their licensing, but its obvious to the powers that be, that open source does indeed matter. 
Once setup and properly configured, the average internet user can learn to maintain a Joomla site. This is, in my opinion, one step closer to bridging the gap between internet technology and the average user. To a developer, this means we can market our services to the non-technical client on the premise that they will not have to spend hours upon hours learning code just to update their site - or more costly, pay another to regularly maintain their site for them. While not completely "user friendly", Joomla and its arsenal of extensions continue to improve in terms of usability. Theres no denying it, Joomla offers a powerful tool which is accessible to a wide range of skill levels.
As mentioned before, Joomla will indeed function well under many different circumstances. The major bonus is its ability to be configured in numerous ways, not simply in terms of visual layout, but also in terms of functionality. Need a new look? 
With its mind-blowing amount of support, extensions, templates, websites and a rapidly growing user base - its hard to deny it; Joomla is going places. I'll make no claims stating that it is the best solution for all possible situations, but you simply cannot deny that Joomla is a significant stepping stone in internet development. With Joomla and CMS systems like it, world is one step closer to giving average users the tools needed to build robust web sites and internet applications, something that until recently has only been available to the select few.
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