Why Should I use Joomla instead of Mambo?

[Kaitain]

You have clearly been asked the Mambo Vs. Joomla a billion times but you have failed to address the most important question, "Why should I use this instead of Mambo?"

When ever I think about a new business the first question I ask myself is, "Why would someone use this instead of what they already have?"

And yes I have read the FAQ.  From that I glean that there was difference of opinion on the philosophy of the direction of Mambo.  Maybe it was a power issue?  The developers felt they had no say in the direction of the system and so they said "screw it, we're doing all the work, we'll do it the way we want."

But once again, why should I use this instead of Mambo?

So, can you please explain and sticky this most important question.

Thank you all very much for your tireless work.

[absalom]

The way I see it:

• More updates, more often
• Better design - well, it was the original roadmap for Mambo anyways, it's just now somewhat accelerated beyond what Mambo now offers
• Heading towards an enterprise grade Push CMS mentality instead of staying with a Pull CMS - the original vision for Mambo 4.5.3 is now seen in Joomla 1.0 and more in 1.1
• Better functionality - pT simplifies things for developers
• Better support - sure, the J! core is around 18 people, but we probably have 50 people in total help develop and shape this project, most of whom have been developing in Mambo for 2 or more years. People here know the project.

[PhilTaylor-Prazgod]

But once again, why should I use this instead of Mambo?

Simply because.

[Tonie]

Better forum, faster response times, more external developers.

[guilliam]

because open source matters!

.. and in joomla its 99.9% impossible this cutting edge cms will be turned into a COMMERCIAL product.

- g

[PhilTaylor-Prazgod]

because open source matters!

.. and in joomla its 99.9% impossible this cutting edge cms will be turned into a COMMERCIAL product.

- g

Actually its probably 100% as if the main developers decided to charg fr Joomla, the GPL license means that any changes tey make I can download and distribute still for free.  GPL rules on this :-)

[pikepace]

When ever I think about a new business the first question I ask myself is, "Why would someone use this instead of what they already have?"

From a business perspective, you have to lay out your goals before you can decide on the best method to achieve them.  If you would like someone to tell you why to use Joomla instead of Mambo, then you must first provide a list of what you are trying to accomplish with a CMS.  Just asking the question in general can only result in people providing answers about how Joomla lets them achieve their personal goals, and there is no certainty that any such answers will be relevant to your situation.

There is no single explanation for why you should choose Joomla over Mambo, or over any other CMS for that matter.  In order to make the choice one needs to do the following:

- Determine what you want to achieve and organize these thoughts.
- If you are already familiar with Joomla, then check out the present version and the roadmap (http://www.joomla.org/content/view/14/28/) to see whether it meets and will continue to meet your needs.
- Perform a similar check on other CMS packages.  You can perform a checklist comparison at the following site, http://www.cmsmatrix.org/matrix
- Finally, if you have specific questions about which systems better fulfill certain needs, then come to a forum (any CMS forum) and get some opinions.

After all this you should have a solution as why any collection of CMS packages is the best solution for you.  It is impossible to directly present one functioning CMS over another because although they fit into the same broad software category they may still be suited to different needs.