HI, I've been using Joomla since it's inception from Mambo but have now decided to move all my sites to a different cms. The main reason for this is I've been noticing a trend in Joomla where more and more oftne the plugins/modules are becoming commericalized which is fine and I'm not against it but it seems the open source concept is getting detered and so I've decided to step away.

I'v decided on XOOPS or Drupal.

I like XOOPS since the stable version I tested was easiy to modifiy and changes in the core/mods weren't as hard as Drupal. But I can understand why from other forums that XOOPS is a bit old and updates are slow.

So I'm pretty much leaning to XOOPS but is XOOPS still being worked on actively or by just a few people? I see that there are 2.0.x, 2.2.x, 2.3.x, and soon 2.4.x versions, so which one is someone suppose to use exactly and how come there are so many versions as I don't know the story of XOOPS except that I've read that alot of the core development team from the past left.

I see that alot of people use 2.2.x but as stated on this site that it is not recommended for production use although alot of people seem to be using it anyways.

Anyways, any information would be helpful as I've got to get ready to port everything to a new cms, thanks.

Every CMS\software has its specialties. Depending on type of site, needs, etc. one CMS may be better suited than another. Just depends. They're all great works & I'm humbled by the work all the devs do, Thank you!!

In regards to Drupal, Joomla, Xoops... I run them all in various situations, each with their strength & weakness. Oh yeah, XOOPS is definitely moving along, check out some of the Dev postings. It could be perceived as slow maybe, but then again XOOPS has an extrememly mature & robust foundation already. In my opinion, some other CMS are developing so rapidly to fill in gaps of functionality they don't have.

Personally, for most scenarios XOOPS usually wins out for me; It has great modules available, decent usergroup ability, community building ability, ecommerce ability, documentation, themeing, etc. The balance and foundation is strong, and the newer stuff coming is just improving on that.

My Joomla & Drupal projects take a lot more time. Joomla has horrible usergroup ACL, (lack of), no excellent natively integrated forum (although Joomlaboard is getting there); Drupal has excellent usergroup ACL, lacking in other areas. Just depends on what you need.

2.0.13.2 is the recommended starting point. 2.0.14 will be available in the very near future from what we hear. The nature of open source is always interesting and spicey. Jump on any Jommla, Mambo, Gnome, KDE, openSuse, Fedora, etc, etc., development mailing list and you'll see loads of disagreement, debate, ocassional exodus of people, pouting, ego's...it can look pretty dismal at times, but big picture is all these long term projects are still around and developing because it's that rich diversity that keeps them evolving :)

Welcome

I'd suggest you hang around a bit and read some of the posts from the past, and those of the present. Get a feel for the community here and you will see that it is a great place to be and that XOOPS is far from stagnant.

If you do take on XOOPS start with the 2.0.13 version for it's stability and the fact that all current support docs and modules are suited to it. You can head for the 2.2 versions later if you feel the need but many are switching back too...the reasons are so wide and varied that it is probably easier for you to just continue with your research and make up your own mind.

Cheers