I was very interested in Drupal. Essentially I wanted something with a news posting facility that was easily linked to a forum and was not a bridge/hack or in beta and very secure. Not much else. But the Drupal users in the support forums made the enterprise sound like it would take more time than I had. I have time to come up with a custom style sheet but not much else so I gave up on the idea for that site. Richard
The difference, I find, between ModX and Drupal is that when you get your head around the snippets, chunks and template variables, you can easily chuck every other module out and create your own - and that creation does not require a long experience with php and mysql, you can do it in HTML. You're always bound to Drupals, or Xoops, or Typo3s, or Mambos or Joomlas components and modules and you have to change them. That's the main difference, I find. But as said, ModX has a learning curve too.
I looked more at Joomla than the others and the dependency on "modules" seemed quite distressing compared to learning a template idiom. Richard
I started using Drupal for a couple month. The php code is easy to understand, it has many user contribute modules for SEO. The html rendering part is extracted from the code and it is easy to use compared to smarty based templates. On my site, bestofhk.com, I modify one of the contributed template to add other columns.
Textpattern ... I love this CMS it's light, fast, flexible and spam proof. Plus you can create portal, blog or traditional style sites with it and if you decide to change the format to one of the others you don't need to change CMS. The others may have more "Bells and whistles", but you find most sites don't really need most of that stuff and you end up with a ton of features, mods and hacks just for the sake of it.
Drupal all the way - extremely flexible. Theming is tough though, and some of the contributed modules can be quite buggy. The taxonomy possibilities ('tagging') it offers is great.
I am currently using Joomla and Mambo (the same) and am also developing extentions for them. I love the admin panel and how easy it is to use.
I use Etomite for my simpler sites, and for client sites that want content control. http://www.etomite.org I use Joomla for community/portal sites http://www.joomla.org I use eZpublish for my more complicated sites as it is pretty easy to extend to do just about anything. http://www.ez.no Then it's phpBB for my forums (version 3/Olympus is looking really good at the moment). Tim
I haven't tried anything but Joomla, it's kind of easy to use and manage. And also it has such a great Community Forum that will help you solve any problem. It's easy to develop template for JOomla though
I have tried many CMS and had the best experience with MOODLE; it’s really a great one but only for education sites. Seen many persons are against e107, don’t know why so. I am using it for couple of my sites (http://cat4mba.com , http://www.rise2fight.com – not complete yet). Joomla is the easiest to install, configure and manage. Drupal – I am still learning about it. For blog – wordpress and textpattern are great.
WordPress is nice, modern and simple, I like to use it for less complex sites. Love that it's "moded" using plugins, not by hacking the code itself. When I need more control upon visitors & members, I prefer phpBB coz you don't need to pay for V-bulletin and there are lot of gr8 MODs available. Hate the fact that modifications makes updates pretty painfull
Joomla, but only with some add-ons. Open SEF takes care of most of the dup content issues. There are a few others that are mandatory in my mind. Done right, a Joomla site is flexible and transparent. (No one knows its a CMS) Expect to spend a few months really learning Joomla, what modules/components are needed, and how to totally remove the Joomla footprint from public pages.
Drupal for me. The pluses: flexible, can relatively easily add php code to pages, write your own module. The taxonomy system is idea for handling large sites, which drupal can handle. The minuses: Some learning curve, not a lot of choice when choosing between available themes (at least, nice ones). i.e., some knowledge in theme writing (CSS) is necessary.