you can do everything with joomla there are many modules for it and you can create any template to use it's backend
i don't like wordpress because it looks too plain. i was thinking of using joomla, but i wanna wait for joomla 1.5. does anyone know when that's coming out?
i use commensense, but I need something that is base of php extension, working on a new project - so I need help finding a good one too with php extensions
Wordpress is only as plain as the template that is being used.... I would also wait for Joomla 1.5 because they're adding many new features.
There is no such thing as the "best CMS" because it all depends what kind of site you have and what you want to do with it. Drupal is fantastic for community portals and organising content in multiple categories. Xaraya is great for developing your own custom solutions on a solid framework. Joomla is good because of the large number of extensions you can use with it. Mambo is great because it is solid, stable and robust. The best Mambo is coming soon as it will provide an accessible site with the ability to validate XHTML1.1 out of the box. Wordpress is one of the easiest to use and has human-friendly URL's built in. It can be extended with plugins and can be set up either as a blog, a blog plus pages, or just pages like any other CMS. Textpattern is excellent, as is Typo3. Plone is probably one of the best around, but not for novices or for shared hosting. I could go on, but I think you get the picture - what works for one person, doesn't for another and it all depends on what you want to do with your site.
I'm all in favor of Mambo. Please note, however, that I've had some problems regarding the compatibility of the back-end site and the newest internet explorer. It could be me, but the menus are screwed up. Firefox, however, can handle this perfectly, so the problem isn't that big. Try mamboserver.com to see whether the addons are available you might want to implement in your future site.
There are so many CMS that it is impossible to rate them all. There's only one thing I would like to say, before you use a CMS check first if that's what you really need. I see many sites using CMS when they really don't need to. There are many advantages of creating a site from scratch.