On 15 January 2010, I installed the Drupal 7.0 Alpha 1 release on a Linux server used for testing here on my home network. The server uses the following LAMP configuration:

• Linux – Ubuntu 9.10
• Apache 2.2.12
• Mysql 5.1.37
• PHP 5.2.10

Installation

The installation was uneventful.  I noticed that it now requires that the following folders be present in the Drupal root.  If they are not present, the installer will not proceed until they are created.  One must leave the installer and create the folders via the operating system’s file management utility or command line interface.

• sites/defaults/files
• sites/defaults/private/files
• sites/default/private/temp

Other than that, and the much improved UI, my impression is that the Drupal 7 Installer isn’t a big departure from those of previous releases.

On 15 September 2009, I downloaded and installed the Drupal 7.0, Unstable 9 development snapshot of the upcoming Drupal 7.x release.  I did two installs: one on my desktop and one on the Linux server used for testing here on my home network. 

The desktop runs Vista Ultimate 64-bit, SP1 and uses WampServer as its LAMP environment.  The configuration includes:

• Apache 2.2.11
• PHP 5.3 or PHP 5.2.8
• Mysql 5.1.30.

The server runs Ubuntu Linux 9.04.  The LAMP configuration includes:

• Apache 2.2.11
• PHP 5.2.6
• Mysql 5.0.75.

Installation

I did not notice much of a change between the Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 installation procedures.  One thing I did notice was the changes in the terminology to create a more user friendly experience. 

Other than the usual Linux file ownership and permission inconsistencies I encounter when installing applications on the Ubuntu Linux server, installation in both environments was uneventful.  PHP did run of of memory during the install on the server, but that was not really a Drupal 7 problem.  I upped the PHP memory allocation from the default 16M to 128M and that fixed the problem.  I need to check this later and determine what the real PHP memory requirement for a Drupal 7 install is.  I'm sure it's much less than 128M.

Administration

Top ten reasons why Drupal and Joomla! suck:

1. They are way too easy to install and configure.
2. They are excellent at managing content.
3. One does not have to give anyone their credit card information to download them.
4. They have way too many 3rd party extensions, especially Joomla.
5. They have communities that are way too large and, on the whole, much too friendly and helpful.
6. They are easy to write templates/theme for (although some may give Joomla! the edge here).
7. They have forums where users can ask and answer questions.
8. They have semi-decent documentation
9. They have created a service industry around them, e.g., selling templates, themes and extensions, building web sites, providing ongoing operations and maintenance support, etc.
10. They have provided shining examples of the benefits of open source software development.

I found this today on the Joomla! Forum and thought it was worth passing on...

A comparison of the capabilities and features of the latest releases (as of September 2008) of Joomla 1.5, Drupal 6, and Wordpress 2 with respect to 1) functionality -- multi-user publishing, layout and design, search engine optimization (SEO), mobile device support, and internationalization/localization; 2) extensibility -- the general climate and quality of third-party extension development for each platform; 3) support; 4) specific kinds of websites -- media/publishing sites, community/social sites, eCommerce sites. This is a helpful breakdown when it comes to deciding which platform is the best fit for a specific purpose.

You can view or download a PDF version of the comparison at NewLocalMedia.org.

One of the criticisms one hears about Drupal is that it does not include a WYSIWYG editor in the the core distribution.  I've never had much of an opinion about this one way or the other.  I do most of my substantial writing locally and use the old copy and paste technique to get the resulting xHTML that is generated into Drupal. 

For a number of years, I used an html editor called HomeSite for generating and testing my web pages and also as the tool for writing articles and blog posts.  It's not a WYSIWYG tool, but I've become quite adept at inserting the xHTML markup as I'm composing text over the years.  My mode of operation has changed recently and this is why: