[consulting] preparing clients for Drupal 5 obsolesence

[Victor Kane]

I agree to push all new work for Drupal 6, and I also agree to maintain my
D5 users.

However, I think that while agreeing to "move to D6" is correct, everyone
has a rather confused view of majority client perception of the web
application one offers as a consultant, and a confused view of what Drupal
means as a CMS framework (apologies to James Dean).

Let me put it bluntly and then offer a solution: most often, the client is
hiring a consultant to deliver a website application (the exception would be
if Sony or someone wants me to specifically build something on Drupal).

The client doesn't care at all if it is D5, D6 or D7, the client doesn't
even (shouldn't) care if it is done in Drupal. The client wants the best
possible solution given her requirements.

And the confusion resides in the fact that while the Drupal philosophy of
non-backward-compatible releases is great for cutting edge, which gives us
consultants more options and shiny new workspaces, it is fundamentally wrong
to expect that the client be obliged to accept the same vis a vis the
website application they are taking delivery on.

They want a website application that will last several years and have every
right to receive that. Only if they ask for new functionality and the cost
of implementing it is cheaper if an upgrade is involved should the client be
expected to change to the new shiny Drupal just because we are excited about
it. I am against the "no support after 9 months" thing and in favor of
backport support.

The solution is as web consultants, to be prepared to work on different
versions.

So:

+1 on starting all new projects with Drupal 6
+1 on maintianing a centralized, community supported backport maintenance
repository
-1 on ultimatums to the clients which will give Drupal a bad name (i.e. "if
you use Drupal you have to do frequent and expensive upgrades").

If you feel that you don't want to be bothered with Drupal 5 anymore, offer
your clients a very cheap or free upgrade to 6. But let's not give the
impression that Drupal is an unstable platform, it isn't.

Victor Kane
http://awebfactory.com.ar
http://projectflowandtracker.com



On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 6:02 PM, Eric Goldhagen <eric at openflows.com> wrote:

> At 11:34 PM +0100 3/9/09, Lafont, Denis wrote:
> >+1 for me.
> >
> >All our new engagements are D6, and starting to convince D5 users to
> >switch to D6 now that most key modules have been migrated.
> >
> >Your "no more security patch in 9 months" is a very valid point ;-)
>
> We are starting any new projects that come in using D6 but intend to
> maintain the sites of any number of clients that will still run D5
> for some unknown time into the future.
>
> Many of our smaller non-profit clients can't afford to upgrade often
> enough to keep up with the pace of drupal development.
>
> Our solution has been to backport security patches that are relevant
> to older versions. We did this for 4.6 when 5 came out, and have been
> doing it with 4.7 since the release of 6. This gives folks the extra
> time necessary to handle the cost and time of upgrades.
>
> Once 7 is out, we'll do the same for 5.
>
> We've asked a couple of times to have a space on Drupal.org or in the
> repository for these backports but have met resistance, so we host
> them on our own site as a service to the community.
> http://openflows.com/drupal/security
>
> --Eric
> --
> ------------------------------------------------
> | Openflows Community Technology Lab, Inc.
> |
> | Members of: the Mayfirst/Peoplelink Network
> | Local 1180, Communications Workers of America
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