Joomla Joins the 21st Century With Rapid Release Cycle

In perhaps a good sign of things to come Joomla released version 1.7 yesterday only about 6 months after their last major release, 1.6. This is the first release on their new rapid development cycle and promises a significant change in the way they have previously done business.

In an area where the age of technology is measured in hours and days rather than years getting to market with new products and features isn’t just nice, but necessary. For example, I’ve been a big fan of Drupal for years but their lack of development (2 -3 years between versions) is a real turn-off. Add to that the necessity to completely rebuild a site when a new major version comes out and it is almost worthless. While these same problems plagued Joomla as well until this current version, it looks like they have finally taken a lesson from WordPress on the necessity to adapt on a much quicker schedule.

Does this mean I’m going to dump my current Drupal sites in favor of Joomla? Doubtful. I have however been looking to move on to WordPress from Drupal for some months now and the successful implementation of this new development cycle does mean I’ll give Joomla another look.