A Reason to Update?
(Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.)
The other day a friend of mine familiar with Joomla dropped the update bomb on me. "So, you know they're up to 1.5.x and 1.6 will be out soon." Yeah, I know. I didn't want to admit to him that I'm still powering up the site on circa 2007 Joomla, specifically – "Joomla! 1.0.13 Stable [ Sunglow ] 21 July 2007 16:00 UTC."
I don't know how the program gets a name such as Sunglow, or why there's an exclamation after Joomla. I guess the original developers were truly excited about it. I wonder if they still are after 33 or so releases since 2007 (post-Mambo) (http://guidecms.com/all-cms/j/joomla/news). Why not give it names such as Joomla! 1.0.13 Stable [ DAMN it's GOOD ] or Joomla! 1.0.13 [ WE FIXED IT ]?
Other names for update releases include: Sunset, Sundial, Sunburst, Sunshade, Sundown, Sunbow, Sunfire… And with the release of 1.5, the naming convention changed to Swahili names such as Khepri (an Egyptian God), Mapya, Endeleo, Takriban and Karibu – various ways of saying [ THE PROGRAM IS STILL COOKING ]
(http://docs.joomla.org/Joomla!_Codenames).
The current release, 1.5.15 is named "Wojmamni ama mamni" – I'm not making that up. It's based on a number system in the Taracahitic Yaqui language (Uto-Aztecan). I didn't realize there were Uto-Aztecan programmers around. Maybe they know something about 2012 (that is, if they've been sharing data with those Mayan programmers out there, but I pretty much doubt it).
The names, however, do not correspond with Joomla's origins – Joomla, itself, is an English spelling of the Arabic word jumla and means "all together," "as a whole" and, no kidding, "sentence" (as in phrase). It was chosen from a variety of platform names submitted by members within the open source community. Joomla is also a derivative of Mambo, but that's another story in itself (I'm sure Mambo has some interesting release names, too).
So though my Joomla is "old" in open source software terms, there are slight modern touches – chunky "Web 2.0" titles, social media tools and widgets and a lightbox mambot to give my photo galleries an elegant display. I know if I update to wojmamni ama mamni security issues may be tighter – but honestly, I'm a freakin' writer – if someone wants to hack this site I think I'd find it flattering (but that's not an invitation…).
On the other side of this to update or not to update question lies WordPress, an open source platform I've grown to love over the years and work with now on a daily basis. And while I have switched allegiance to WordPress, I still like building Joomla sites for freelance clients. Though one of these days I'm tempted to create a template with bright, neon colors glaring out from the screen with retro icon graphics – all of which go together so well – think steampunk meets a flower child of the '60s. Ahem. (I promise to never mix those two art mediums… truly!)
WordPress has great SEO potential – Joomla is a tough player when it comes to pleasing Google. Templates for both are plentiful and there are some amazing beautiful ones to choose from. If you want to create your own, Artisteer (http://www.artisteer.com/) is a good way to get started for either program, but WordPress templates are pretty easy to make yourself. Joomla, on the other hand…
So, I will eventually update my Joomla site – simply because it'll be interesting to see what the site will look like and what the backend will offer since I'm so many updates behind. That's exciting… I think.
So, as of this writing, Joomla is currently up to 1.5.15 [Wojmamni ama mamni] with a slated release of 1.6 (perhaps they'll use Cymraeg as their next codename creation language – imagine – Joomla! 1.5.15 [pymtheg ar hugain] ("15" in Cymraeg) as yet to be determined.
When it comes to open-source software sometimes it's just better to wait out a few releases unless you're extremely concerned with security issues (most releases are meant to fix security issues).
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