Software Development

After five years of development, the MODx CMS has finally went to version 1.0. Late last week, the project leaders for MODx made the following announcement:

To say we're excited about this release would be a bit of an understatement. Far, far more than just a new Manager theme and some bugfixes here and there, Evolution 1.0.0 represents a ton of work by a lot of people. Our classic code base is no where close to outdated or obsolete, on the contrary it just took a huge leap forward and sets the stage for continuing development and improvements to our classic code base.

Boatloads of bugfixes and feature requests aside, our 1.0 release focuses on a few key areas. The international communities deserve a huge "thank you" for all their hard work in getting their languages updated, too

MODx Evolution is actually one of two branches of development for the CMS. The release based on legacy code-MODx Evolution-has existed since 2004. There is also a completely rewritten MODx Revolution release that will occur in late 2009. In fact the release candidate for MODx Revolution is due later this summer.

Some of the new features and changes in MODX 1.0 Evolution include:

• Many updates to Manager and Installer language translations
• Now handles RSS, Word, Excel, XML, HTML, CSS, JS, PDF and plain documents with custom icons in the Site Tree
• Remove legacy code no longer needed
  

Every year, I like to slow down my technology usage for a few weeks. I don't think as human beings we were meant to be immersed in the huge quantity of digital information that we are today. From the moment I am awake to the moment I go to bed, my body is being loaded information. The email, cell phone, and the Internet seem to have a never ending presence in the lives of us IT folks. I don't have much control with removing technology from my work day, but I do have options in my personal life. It's time for me to unplug and officially begin my annual Technology Break.

Some of the most intense debates I've seen in the open source community have been discussions covering what is or what isn't required by the popular open source license, the GNU GPL. For example, it is common practice in the open source CMS market to distribute themes that include the templates (the code) under the GPL and the artwork (including CSS) under a different license. Under the GPL, is this practice legal or not?

I originally thought the article from Silicon.com, "Naked CIO: Open source ain't cheap" was written by a troll.  Most IT authors realize that the quickest way to get a rise out of readers is to say something negative about one of two topics, Apple computers or open source. This author decided to write about the latter.  Reluctantly, I have to agree with the author that for most enterprises running while open source is no more expensive than proprietary solutions it also certainly is not compellingly cheaper.

A few sources of costs for the enterprise running open source given by the author include:

The XOOPS Project, one of world’s leading Open Source CMS (Content Management System), is experiencing something that probably none of the Open Source CMS projects have ever experienced: reunification with its forks.
It's typical in the Open Source environment that developers work on a project, but then have different ideas, and leave the project to create their own forks. Most of the time they never come back.

So it's a sign of a visionary leadership of the current XOOPS team that they reached out and were able to attract back three of its recent and most innovative forks:
 
•    Simple-XOOPS under Dirk Herrmann from Germany 

osCommerce announced that their osCommerce Online Merchant v3.0 Alpha 5 will be made available on March 11th.  They've also retooled the schedule for additional releases of this well known shopping cart.

osCommerce Online Merchant v3.0 Alpha 5 was scheduled for release by the end of February and has been postponed to ensure the quality of the release. It will now be released on Wednesday the 11th of March. This release also brings in a new roadmap and release strategy for the v3.x series.

Although Firefox is my choice for Internet browsers, I do use Microsoft's Internet Explorer from time to time.  Yesterday, I installed the release candidate of Internet Explorer 8.

I can't say I'm a big fan of their "Web slice" approach as it feels like I'm ramming Google Desktop via RSS feeds down the browser's favorites bar.  Who know though, perhaps the slice approach will grow on me.  However, I am a big fan of Microsoft creating a more compliant and less buggy browser and IE8 seems to fit the bill.  If IE7 was a good step in the right direction then IE8 gets Microsoft's users pretty close to the destination.

Meanwhile, my rant to all the IE6 users.  I can't believe that about a third of Microsoft Windows users are still using IE6.  Shame on you if you are still using that insecure, buggy, and non-compliant browser.  Microsoft doesn't even want you to use that browser...and yet you're still stuck in the stone ages.  I have a theory that IE6 is symbolic of the problems of complacency at Microsoft and those companies/users that are still on that browser.  IE8 arriving on a modern Windows desktop near you and you're still on IE6?  Give me a break!

This is a really cool story on how local governments can improve their presence on the Internet and save money using open source software.  The City of Albert Lea needed to improve their website but the small Minnesota city was facing project costs of $10,000 to $30,000.  In walks Wordpress being utilized as a full content management system.  As reported by the Albert Lea Tribune:

Some cities pay a consultant $10,000, $20,000, even $50,000 for a Web-based content-management site that looks professional and is consistent through and through. Fairbault is one instance.

Albert Lea, however, paid $720 to local resident Jeshua Erickson last December, she said. Kauffmann was in charge of the site’s revision, and last October she put together a committee of city
officials to advise her.

She said the committee decided to shoot for a site using a content management system — or CMS — but it was outside of her Internet skills. The city began seeking estimates from Web design companies. When the estimates returned, they realized the city couldn’t afford it.

“We just didn’t feel we could justify spending $20,000-plus on a Web site,” Kauffmann said. “I happened to run into Jeshua Erickson on the Pelican Breeze one day, and we talked about Web sites and how he was developing them using WordPress.”

I'll have to say that even though Wordpress is open source and "free", this city got a steal with getting a website for under $1000.  While Albert Lea is a small city, developing government sites can become big projects with lots of complications.  Either the city was kind to the developer and his hours or he felt some civil duty to give the city's taxpayers a good deal.  An example of this developer doing such a good job, Albert Lea's website is currently running Wordpress 2.7 which is the latest available version of Wordpress.  Very well done Mr. Erickson.

During the past couple years I've had some brief but rewarding content management discussions with Deane Barker from Gadgetopia and Blend Interactive.  Dean has worked with quite a few Web content management systems over the years and appears to be most passionate to using eZ Publish.  Naturally, our discussions almost always involve Dean talking about ez Publish and me talking about Drupal.  Unfortunately, as I am more of a system administrator than a developer, the information I have been able to provide him about Drupal has always been limited.

Sigurd Magnusson sent us an email to let us know that "SilverStripe has now split its company and open source projects into two totally revamped and beautiful websites".  The two SilverStripe websites will of course have different purposes.

Head on over to the SilverStripe.com site if you want to know more about our company and the business side of things. But if you're looking for the SilverStripe community, developer documentation, or the roadmap for the future of the product, you're in the right place [SilverStripe.org].