That might sound like a silly question as we all know that Joomla cost zero pounds, zero dollars, zero euros, zero yen, zero yuan etc. But it is not as simple as that.
Earlier today I twittered
Trying to write new blog post "how much does #joomla cost" not easy. struggling with some of the math.
Joomla does not cost nothing.
One of the slides I had to drop from my "Hidden Joomla Secrets" presentation was an ugly hack to solve what for me has been a long standing issue with Joomla user registration.
By default joomla provides no method to pre-approve registrations before providing access. Currently there are two choices
- Automatically approve on signup.
- Automatically approve once email has been confirmed.
There is no option for the site administrator to approve registrations first. For me that has been an issue on many sites, hence the ugly hack, and I see many people installing complex extensions e.g. Community Builder to resolve this simple issue.
Not any more!!
On Friday I did something that I never thought I would ever do. I bought a Mac. To be more exact I bought one of the new aluminium Mac Book Pro.
I've been a PC user for more years than I like to remember and although I have dabbled with OS X on occasions in the past I have never before succumbed.
Right now I feel a little bit like Adam being tempted to take a bite out of the apple by Eve, I just hope it doesn't lead to the same result.
So what made me take the leap?
Last weekend, June 12-14, I had the pleasure and honour to speak and present at Joomla!Days in the Netherlands.
Over large amounts of coffee, and some beer, I spoke to friends, old and new, and with (only a) little exception the topic of conversation was the same.
"I'm going to stick my head above the parapets now and say aloud what so many are thinking and saying in private."
Where is joomla going? What is the future of joomla?
Last weekend I was fortunate to have been invited to present at Joomladays.nl in the Netherlands.
"Remember my name you will be screaming it later"
Recently whilst visiting a client they were moaning about the lack of true content preview in joomla.
There are plenty of tricks you can employ to preview content in hidden categories etc but its still not the same as previewing the content exactly where it will appear.
The same is also true when adding a new component or plugin to a live site. Will it work properly in the site configuration, what will it look like, will it needed styling to match the site etc and all in an environment where the casual site visitor will not see it.
Back in April I published news about a Joomla administrator application for the iPhone.
With these trying times, $9.99 may be a lot for an iPhone user to invest on an iPhone App. This is why Covert Apps has just released a free, ad supported lite version, or "low fat" in Brit speak, of J Admin Mobile!
... and Wordpress is better than both.
Back in January of this year I made the first call for votes in the annual Linux Journal magazine Readers' Choice Awards.
The results are now in and in what looks like a pretty close race Joomla came second.
Release early - release often or release once when it is ready?
It is often quoted that an open source project, like Joomla, should release early and release often as this is the best method to find bugs and provide new features.
However I believe that is an overly simplistic approach and does not translate to real world use in all but the simplest, single use projects and definitely not for Joomla.
As soon as you have a piece of software that third parties extend and build upon you run into serious issues.
