How Long Will Drupal Be Around?
By Rob Safuto on Aug 14, 2007 in Open Source, Tools |
Not very long if you ask Chris Pirillo. He recently stated that, “…intelligent Drupal developers are in absolute short supply - to the point where I don’t think the platform will be around for too much longer.”
I do believe that the world needs more Drupal developers but that hardly means the platform is going away. In fact I think that the platform is progressing nicely. The next version ofDrupal is slated to support OpenID and localization. There are loads of great modules contributed by developers who are building on the platform.
I recently constructed a new site called New York Is My Kind Of Town using Drupal and between core and contributed modules I achieved every function I wanted to. No custom development needed.
The situation that Chris highlights is more of an opportunity than the tolling of the death bell for Drupal. Drupal is such a great platform that there is a high demand for development skills to deploy it commercially. But the fact is that there are plenty of developers contributing to the platform itself. And you also don’t necessarily need a developer to get a site up and running on Drupal. I’m not a developer and I’ve done it several times.
So I just want to tell Chris, “You are wrong. Drupal is going to be around for a very long time.” I even chuckle a little as I write this because his comment is so absurd.
Peter Woo | Aug 14, 2007 | Reply
I guess we don’t need to be too serious about Chris’ comment. He was just stressed. I work in a bank and have 50 or so highly paid Java programmers, a seperate team of 3~4 Unix admin, and a separate team of 3~4 Oracle admin. When a project get stuck, the first note form the project manager is the same - intelligent Java developers are in absolute short supply - to the point where I don’t think our project will be around for too much longer…
Jeff Badger | Aug 14, 2007 | Reply
Peter, I have 25 highly paid Drupal developers and keep turning away the Java candidates - care to make a trade? On a serious note, Drupal is not going away we just need to make sure that focus remains on training new talent. If anything, Books like “Pro Drupal Development” have made this job easier.
Rob Safuto | Aug 14, 2007 | Reply
I have the Drupal Pro book and it has been a good resource for me in helping take my skills forward.
Also worth checking out is Dries’ recent post on hiring Drupal talent. http://buytaert.net/on-hiring-drupal-talent-2
Chris Pirillo | Aug 14, 2007 | Reply
I’m… frustrated, not disillusioned.
Drupal is not friendly for people like myself, and there seem to be few Drupal devs who really understand people like me.
Drupal Dude | Aug 15, 2007 | Reply
I was frustrated with the learning curve of Drupal at first as well. I’ve been working with Drupal for close to a year now and I feel I have a good grasp on what it can do and the modules available.
I started a site to help people who do not understand the basics of Drupal and what it can do. I am focusing more on videos than anything else to help people.
http://www.drupaldude.com
Hope you like it!
Dan (the Drupal Dude)
Tracy Smith | Aug 19, 2007 | Reply
I’ve been using Drupal for a little over 6 months now and have rolled out several Drupal websites for our clients. I do find that the learning curve can be quite steep for new developers. However, I am always amazed at how fast I can become comfortable programming in Drupal with just a little piece of knowledge.
paul del signore | Sep 22, 2007 | Reply
Just wanted to chime in and say I love your site and your lessons on Drupal are exactly what web developers need to see the potential of Drupal. Keep it up!
in my opnion, Drupal will only get better but what it needs is what Joomla has… better theming and good usable presentations on using Drupal. Once the web designers like myself start using Drupal, and the theming improves…. Drupal will be taken to a new level. Drupal has the programmers and developers… It needs the Designers!
paul
Derek Chirnside | Jul 5, 2008 | Reply
Just a quick checkin Rob. This is a semi random place I’ve decided to post.
Here is my problem: we are on Drupal 5. We cannot move to Drupal 6 yet unless we give up some functionality for a few plugins we use. Like ‘views’ for instance.
Drupal seems to have a lean core and not much of what I consider basic functionality (found in the contrib code) seems likely to head for the core.
When I surf the sites for the plugins some have not even got a beta for 6.0 sorted. This makes it hard for the future.
I was interested in Chris Pirillo’s comments abiout an out of the box solution. (I was interested to note his earlier post about Inteligent developers . .) It is nearly impossible to make a simple site with Drupal out of the box, and it is quite a minefield getting a basic suite of modules - then you find they are not updated.
I also notice help is still sparse. A case in point is the tagadelic plugin. (There is a module that should be in the core).
The we install a module and find it needs another which needs another . . (The joys of OS)
I’m just about do delve in to see how you vote on all this stuff - find out how does a contrib get included in the core etc.
Rob Safuto | Jul 6, 2008 | Reply
A couple of notes on your comment Derek.
Drupal 6 is catching up with 5 but there are still plenty of unported modules. I don’t know how recently you’ve checked but both views and CCK have release candidates for Drupal 6. I’ve been using the views beta for several weeks now on a D6 site and it has worked fine for me.
Core is very lean and while this is a good thing there are definitely modules that many Drupallers would like to see in core. I think that CCK, Views and Pathauto would be high on the list. We’re definitely going to see more core modules in Drupal 7.
Help is up to both the developers and the community. A lot of modules get a bad rap when it comes to help, but many have sufficient instructions in the Read Me file. Always read the Read Me file! This is an issue with all open source platforms. D6 has a promising module called Advanced Help that allows module developers to include much more comprehensive help from within the admin interface.
Finally, I believe you can build a simple site with Drupal core plus a couple of contrib modules. That’s what I’ve done with http://www.awakenedvoice.com.
The keys to developing with Drupal (or any open source platform) are taking the time to learn and engaging with the community. Non-developers like myself who invest the time can reap great rewards.
Fred Johnston | Jul 12, 2008 | Reply
Hi Rob,
Your videos are just GREAT!… Thanks!…
1)I’m concerned that there’s already talk of version 7, and 6 doesn’t seems like it’s anywhere near 5 for modules, etc. That worries me… will there every be a point where a version catches up the the previous, or will new versions come out faster all the time, making it REALLY hard to know what version to run… thus making it easier and easier to jump ship… I hope not, as I do really like Drupal
2)I think you mentioned in your cck and views video, that there was more info on menus in another video?? (what video is that?)
3)do you have a complete list of your videos, and what they discuss?
Thanks again!… Fred Johnston (will donate shortly)
Rob Safuto | Jul 15, 2008 | Reply
Fred,
Thanks for checking in and thanks for the compliments on the Drupal videos. Drupal 6 is getting better everyday. Views and CCK were just recently upgraded to D6. Those modules were ones that many people were waiting for. I think that the actual full release of version 7 is still many months away. If I were starting a site now I would go with Drupal 6. If you already have a site on Drupal 5 I don’t think there’s any need to move to 6 unless there’s some feature in D6 you really want. You’ll notice that when there are security releases for D6 that they include upgrades for D5 too.
I can’t recall what I said on menus to be honest. You can find a list of my older Drupal videos at http://learn.awakenedvoice.com/tag/drupal/. You can find newer ones at my new Drupal-focused site at http://www.learnbythedrop.com.
Thanks for your support and good luck.
Rob Safuto