The Joomla! CMS Project recently announced a change in the policy for listing 3rd-party extensions on their popular JED site.  The new policy requires that all 3rd-party extensions must use the GPL license in order to be listed on the directory.  Furthermore, they will no longer accept extensions that contain encrypted code, which some open source software developers use to discourage individuals and warez sites from redistributing their software.

This came as no big surprise to me, as  Joomla's overall policy on extension licensing, which was announced about 18 months ago, is that extensions to Joomla!, which is GPL, are, by definition, GPL since they are considered "derivative works."

While I personally have no problem with this new policy (other than wondering why GPL-compatible licenses are not allowed), I wondered if anyone had really thought about what the long term effect of a GPL-only policy would be on one of Joomla's often stated future goals.  That being the desire to have the Joomla! CMS spawn a companion "application framework" upon which a number of diverse applications could be built.   

One thought that crossed my mind while burning a minimal amount of brain cells thinking about this was:

rhuk Solarflare II for Joomla! 1.5.x – This is the popular Solarflare template that was initially developed for the Mambo CMS and subsequently modified for use with the Joomla! CMS 1.0.x releases.  Many of the Mambo and Joomla! based sites out there today use this template or a variation thereof.  This template is for use with Joomla! 1.5.x running in native mode.  It will not work on Joomla! 1.0.x sites.

• rhuk_solarflare_ii.zip (178KB)
• Compatible with Joomla 1.5.x
• Tested with IE7, IE8 and Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Win XP Pro and Win Vista Ultimate-64; Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Linux
• View a demo of this template
• Read a tutorial about this template
• Last updated on 2009-03-22.

rhuk Solarflare II Gray for Joomla! 1.5.x – This is the same Solarflare template with a gray/red theme.  This template is for use with Joomla! 1.5.x running in native mode.  It will not work on Joomla! 1.0.x sites.

• rhuk_solarflare_ii_gray.zip (52KB)
• Compatible with Joomla 1.5.x
• Tested with IE7, IE8 and Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Win XP Pro and Win Vista Ultimate-64; Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Linux
• Last updated on 2009-03-22.

rhuk Solarflare II Gray (Wide) for Joomla! 1.5.x – This is the same Solarflare template with a gray/red theme that is optimized for screen widths of 1024px or greater.  This template is for use with Joomla! 1.5.x running in native mode.  It will not work on Joomla! 1.0.x sites.

• rhuk_solarflare_ii_gray_wide.zip (50KB)
• Compatible with Joomla 1.5.x
• Tested with IE7, IE8 and Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Win XP Pro and Win Vista Ultimate-64; Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Linux
• Last updated on 2009-03-22.

hrpr_gray_hz for Joomla! 1.0.x – This is an earlier version of the current hrpr.com template.  It is a variable width template that shows best on screen resolutions of 1024x768 and above.  This template is for use with Joomla! 1.0.x.  It will not work on Joomla! 1.5.x sites.

• hrpr_gray_hz.zip (92.92 KB)
• Compatible with Joomla 1.0.x
• Tested with IE7+ and Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Win XP Pro; Firefox 2.x.x, 3.x.x on Linux
• Last updated on 2008-04-06.