Hi all,

We're preparing to migrate to a new content management system here at Virtualmin.com. The new system doesn't use the same password hash as our current system, and so we're going to have to reset passwords and assign new usernames (both will be changeable). We'll notify you of the change via email, assuming your email address is accurate.

So, please update your email address if it is not current.

Thanks!

Just out of curiosity, what CMS are you migrating to? One of the usual offerings or something custom??

Joomla 1.0.12. With a few customizations. Installed by Virtualmin to run under mod_fcgid, of course, though I'll probably also add one of the many accelerators and some other fun stuff to keep things zoomy (it's plenty fast right now, but when we throw thousands of users at it, plus the users that we expect to get going forward as we begin marketing and pushing for sales and more users, it'll have to work a lot harder).

For forums I'm using Joomlaboard with minor tweaks.

Shopping cart is VirtueMart, with major tweaks (actually, I've written the software license manager from scratch and just added a mambot to add to it on purchases, so minor tweaks to core VirtueMart code, but lots of additional code written). I'll blog about these changes and release the mambot and such at some point in the not distant future.

Bug and issues are merging down into a single Flyspray installation.

Documentation is in a DokuWiki.

And finally, FAQs are handled by EasyFaq, but I suspect this will be merged into the Wiki pretty quickly. The special purpose FAQ seems an unnecessary separation when wikis are so useful for that sort of thing--and we'd like for users to be able to read the FAQ, follow the instructions, and then say, "Hey, wait a minute! That didn't work right! I had to also do X, Y and Z to get it working."

Sweet, big Joomla & Drupal dweeb here. May want to check out Fireboard too(based on Joomlaboard, but tweeaked)

Hey Vance,

Cool. I liked the looks of the Drupal architecture better (URLs in Joomla are frankly stupid, and the ad hoc nature of everything is a bit disconcerting), but it doesn't have the apps we need, and in the apps it does have, they are missing some vital features. So we've ended up with Joomla. Both are damned impressive, however, in how much one can do before you have to start writing code--I'm in agreement with Larry Wall laziness is one of the supreme virtues of being a developer. If I don't have to write code to get things working the way I want, I'm happy. I can't say that's entirely true of Joomla, but it was more true of Joomla than our current OpenACS system and more than any other CMS I looked at.

The worst thing about Joomla (which Drupal gets right) is that there's way too much crap happening in the default page. Everything anyone ever wanted to see on a front page is displayed by default in Joomla. That kind of design and architecture only makes sense for a very very very limited subset of websites, and yet, it's the default in Joomla. It took me weeks to figure out how to get rid of everything and start from scratch. And even now there are some elements that I'd like to reduce in complexity, but the only way I can without altering code is to add a "display:none" to the CSS element for it!

I've never heard of Fireboard, but I'll definitely check it out. I like that Joomlaboard feels "native", unlike the more powerful SMF. SMF is also way too complicated and stupid looking--a lot of people love it, but we're looking for clean and simple, so we can make it look like a natural part of the website, rather than a bolted on thing.

Whoah! The Fireboard guys have a kickass site (unlike the Joomlaboard guys...it's a nightmare to look at). I'll have to give it a look. Joomlaboard has no issues that are bugging me, but if Fireboard is a drop-in replacement and has some improvements, it might be worth an hour or two to switch before launch.

Yep, Drupal definitely has fantastic coding & features, but as you say it's more of a skeletal framework requiring a bit of time. Seems to be a bit of focus of late on how resource hungry Drupal is too when used on decently visited sites. The way Joomla categories content is a bit awkward to me, but somehow it starts making sense after a bit.

From what I understand Fireboard is to become the successor to Joomlaboard, so likely may be a better move to go with that anyhow. I have a few new projects to get up too, both will go with Fireboard. Great to finally have a Joomla native forum solution that's full functioned enough, been a real sore spot. I've had a few sites with JoomlaSMF...what a pain in the arse.

Their site is great isn't it? Very Web 2.0 or what not. Nice clean, non-busy layout.

Nice clean, non-busy layout.

1 for 2. It's busy. Not busy by Joomla site standards, but still way busy by my reckoning. They haven't stripped out all of the stupid Joomla garbage, and have even added some! (By this, I'm referring to all of the extraneous icons surrounding every news item on the front page, particularly the little views counter with the graph icon by every item, unnecessary page sections--a lot of that stuff ought not be on the front page.)

But, who am I to judge. Current Virtualmin.com is horrible design. It was whipped together over a weekend, while I was fighting with all of the other behind the scenes crap, and hasn't seen an update since then. The new site will be significantly cleaner (and I know my design limitations, so simplicity will win over fancy ideas).

Anyway, after reading up on it, I noted that as you've stated, it is the continuation of Joomlaboard, so it'll definitely be what we run. I'm not looking forward to having to strip out all of the new extra crap from the style and markup, but if they're as good as it looks like they are, I'll be able to do it all in style sheets.

Personally I like Mambo for a business CMC. Has lots of nice templates for free and the plugins are really easy to use.

*Shameless Plugin*

And I use Mambo for all my business customers I have.

*End Plugin*

Color me stupid, but I haven't been able to find the fireboard web site. What's the url?

I'm currently in China, so that's my excuse for not being able to find it. Maybe it's a plot... Nah, just me, probably.