A recent blog post (and yes, that's a nofollow link...) has made quite an impression on a lot of Joomla users. The blog post is written to give an overview of different Content Management Systems (CMS) and their pros and cons.

However, the author falls into the trap of attacking certain platforms - and Joomla in particular. The way it was done is quite nasty. In my opinion there's no place this kind of subjective, biased ranting in a post comparing different systems. Although I don't think it's hurting the community or adaptation of Joomla, it is important to set the record straight. Many of the commenters in the original post express strong feelings about the author's opinions.

I believe the 'Joomla is Evil' way of saying it was written to provoke and get traffic to the post. However, the author mentions a few negative things about Joomla and I thought I'd dissect them ;)

Sarah Watz is the President of Joomla! User Association Sweden, and the CEO of Pixpro, a Joomla consultancy business in Stockholm, Sweden. Sarah is also one of the driving forces behind the new concept called "Joomla!Night". She organized the first such event, which took place in Stockholm in February 2011.

I've met Sarah at several Joomla events, and apart from her being a really nice person, I've noticed she's involved in several aspects of the Joomla project. In this interview, she shares some of her views on Joomla, the community and how you can contribute to the project.

In this video, Matt Thomas talks about his Construct template development framework for Joomla.

Matt won the J.O.S.C.A.R.S award at the J and Beyond 2011 conference for Construct.

Construct Unified is the first template development framework that works alike in Joomla! 1.5, 1.6, the Molajo Joomla 1.6 distribution, and Nooku Server, allowing for a seamless transition of your template. It fuses the power of Construct Pro with new features for unparalleled flexibility.

As with all versions of Construct, Construct Unified doesn't rely on WYSIYG editors or new interfaces. It provides a flexible and powerful foundation for the rapid development of one-of-a-kind templates. A few lines of CSS is all that is needed to create a unique template, expand it further by overriding the core layout and styles on a dynamic basis.

After the release of Joomla 1.6 GA, it's just natural to have a chat with the lead developer: Andrew Eddie.

Andrew has been with the Joomla project since the Mambo days and has been leading the Production Leadership Team for some time now.

I managed to get some thoughts from him around the release of Joomla 1.6. Read on for an interview with "Mr. Joomla" where he talks about the process leading up to the release, new features, and feelings around community involvement.

In the wake of the Joomla! 1.6 release this week, there are a lot of questions buzzing around.

Among them are questions on how Joomla 1.6 will impact the Joomla Extensions Directory (JED).

I talked to Matt Lipscomb of the Community Leadership Team, and JED/JRD Co-Manager. He had some interesting thougts to share around the subject.

This week, I have the pleasure of introducing Marco Barbosa. Marco is a Brazilian working and living in Sweden, with a glowing passion for Joomla.

He's known to some of you as the guy behind Minima, the exciting new admin template for Joomla 1.6, as well as an active contributor in the Joomla UX group at people.joomla.org.

A while ago, the Joomla Production Leadership Team decided to split the Joomla project into two parts. One part is the CMS we all know and love. The actual system we're using every day. The other part is the layer behind the CMS, the inner workings of Joomla. Simply put, it can be defined as the contents of the /libraries/ folder in Joomla. This is now called the J!Platform.

If you're an end-user of Joomla, you probably don't care too much about this. As long as it works, it's all good, right? Still, I believe you should know why the J!Platform can be part of what will ensure the solid future of the Joomla project.

As a PHP developer, you should really take a look at the J!Platform and what it can do.

The guys over at JoomStew have started an initative to help Matias Aguirre. He's the developer of the jUpgrade migration tool for Joomla 1.5 to 1.6.

He will benefit greatly if he's able to attend the J and Beyond event in The Netherlands this May. And so will you - as it will improve the way his migration component works and what it supports.

Unfortunately, he doesn't have the $2500 required for attendance and accomodation.

That's why the JoomStew people have started a fundraising initative to help him go to the event.

When Joomla 1.6 was released, one of the first questions people had was if current Joomla extensions would be compatible. It's been known for a long time that the changes in Joomla 1.6 mean that every single extension used needs an update.

For some developers, this is an easy task. For others, it's something compared to a nightmare.

I asked a group of developers to share their opinions on the Joomla 1.6 release, and what it will mean for their companies.

As I wrote in my post on the Joomla 1.6 launch - much of the success of version 1.6 will depend on the availability of extensions and templates.

The Joomla Bug Squad has been instrumental in getting to where we are today. These people have relentlessly hunted for and squashed bugs in the software.

Without them, no-one knows when we would have seen the current version.

Although there are still many bugs in the software, they will be squashed in the weeks and months ahead. Again, the Bug Squad will be an important part of this process.

And so will you and I - we all need to chip in and report bugs, test the software and make sure 1.6 evolves into something as stable as the Joomla 1.5 we already know.