Mambo of Joomla does it matter?

[RobbieB]

I'm getting ready to convert my site from phpnuke hell to mambo or joomla using SMF forums.
since mambo and joomla are pretty much identical should there be any reason to choose one over the other in light of me choosing SMF as myforums?

[dtm.exe]

I highly recommend you use Joomla, the newer version of Mambo.

[RobbieB]

I suspect you meant "then new versions of mambo." Whats the real reason, itsn't it just some political battle about the open source license?

Is there any advantage of choosing either in regards to SMF though?

[Orstio]

I highly recommend you use Joomla, the newer version of Mambo.

Not true.  Joomla is a fork of the Mambo project.  Mambo 4.5.3h is as recent as Joomla 1.0.7.

Right now, the differences between them are negligible.  The upcoming Joomla 1.5 will be quite a big difference, as will the Mambo 4.6 release.

So, while they are pretty much the same right now, they will soon be very different products.

[RobbieB]

Well, I'm at a pretty big crossroads then. I dont want to choose one that will be less supported or die off because that will screw me over big time. I've already been screwed over multiple times due to sql injection exploits in phpnuke and I just can't keep up with phpnuke anymore.

[Orstio]

Well, I'm at a pretty big crossroads then. I dont want to choose one that will be less supported or die off because that will screw me over big time. I've already been screwed over multiple times due to sql injection exploits in phpnuke and I just can't keep up with phpnuke anymore.

Those are things I don't think you'll need to be concerned about with either of these products.

However, there is quite a huge difference between these and PhpNuke.  PhpNuke is a portal system, while Mambo and Joomla are true Content Management Systems.

If it's a portal you are after, you will probably find both Mambo and Joomla somewhat cumbersome.

[RobbieB]

I've already tried mambo and I really like the backend and everything so I'm okay with that. Whatever I do I'm just trying to get as far away from phpnuke as possible. Just looking for some kind of affirmation that choosing joomla over mambo isn't gonna come back and haunt me later, especially because I just read that joomla is not planning to be backwards compatible anymore.

[brother7]

If you decide to go with Joomla, I'd suggest waiting to play with 1.5 beta which is due to be released sometime in April.  The differences between 1.0.x and 1.5 are supposed to be major.

[RobbieB]

Lemme ask this then. I know the definition of CMS but how is this so different from a "portal system"? I don't quite understand the difference. Aside from administration aspects (joomla/mambo are easier to admin IMO) they both look to be abe to do the same kinds of things which mainly is posting news articles and stuff.

I suppose right now regardless of what I choose I'll still be able to change to either one since they're still so similar.

[Orstio]

Portal systems are focused mainly on the userbase.  CMS's are focused more on the site content.

That isn't to say that a portal can't function as a CMS, or a CMS can't function as a portal.  It's just not necessarily the thing they do best.

(From the look of your posts, I wonder if you weren't trying to use PhpNuke as a CMS all along...)

[blunt]

I've been wondering the same thing lately, and I came to the conclusion it's probably better for me to go with Mambo for now, because there are loads of templates available for it and there's a large user base to consult if and when I run into problems.

It's a shame SMF doesn't have its own dedicated portal.  I really don't want to mess around with either Mambo or Joomla - I'd prefer to stick with an SMF product.  I may just try to code my own simple portal using PHP includes and html/css yet, but again, I'd rather not go through the hassle of it  

[Orstio]

Well, there is TinyPortal by Bloc:

http://www.tinyportal.net/smf/index.php

[blunt]

Thanks for the heads-up, Orstio - I'll take a look at that