[development] google just pwned the brochureware site industry

[Darrel O'Pry]

On Thu, 2006-02-23 at 15:17 -0800, Benson Wong wrote:

> What's evolving out of Drupal's popularity as a CMS is Drupal the
> Product. The difference is the Product has responsibilities:
> 
>  1. It has to keep up with the competition. i18n support, pluggable
> authentication, etc.
>  2. Security
>  3. Support
>  4. Available developer base.
>  5. etc.
bah, bah, bah. Drupal is not a product. The websites and their
functionality that Drupal consultants and developers create are the
product here.

> 
> 1. Where is the long term roadmap to Drupal?
 innovative flexible technology?


> 2. What is the long term support structure for Drupal
>  - I spent $200,000 building Site X on Drupal 4.8, how do I maintain
> (security, new features, etc) it for 2 years?

Umm, aren't you a programmer or consultant? You should pay a programmer
or consultant to make sure your needs are met if you are unable to meet
them yourself. I would suggest that you never build a business model on
external factors that you have no control over.

> 3. I spent $15,000 building Module Y, for 4.7, what are my options for
> moving forward with 4.8, 4.9, etc.

Umm, upgrading modules from 4.6 -> 4.7 takes about 8 hours total. I'm
sure if you spent 15k on it in the first place, another 800 won't kill
you. Especially, if your business depends on it.

> 4. And so on...

I think it is silly to expect an open source community to cover your
business's tail. 

> These considerations might not matter to geeks/developers adding in
> features, but it matters to people who depend on this software to
> provide them a solution. An similar situation, PHP3 disappeared
> quickly after PHP4 came out. PHP4 will be around for _years_, even
> after PHP6 comes out.

You don't have to upgrade, security releases will be made. Upgrade
path's are in place for most everything. What are you stressing over?
Contrib module X that you use isn't updated at the same time as core. 
Well upgrade or contact that contribs author...

> Drupal is headed in that same direction. My point is, the project
> needs more planning to balance reaction. Developers should be allowed
> to build any contribution they want, but core should not change so
> much as it breaks functionality between point releases.

Developers are allowed to build whatever contribution they want. Core
does break functionality between releases. Drupal has no guaranteed
backwards compatibility. Stick to the same core API version if you need
to. I have production servers still running linux 2.0.x kernels... Why,
no need to upgrade!  You don't have to. We aren't microsoft. You can
make your own security fixes. Its OPEN SOURCE!!!!! We don't force
obselescence. You can fork for your project if you need.  Whatever...

> Ben.

.darrel.