software: April 2009 Archives

Been researching MODx, a Content Management System (CMS) .. similar to Drupal and Joomla .. tho considerably more 'flexible.'

Being a publisher-of-content myself means I'm always on-the-lookout for cool, new publishing tools. Movable Type has been my tool-of-choice since 2003, but I'm always open to trying new things.

The thing I don't like about Movable Type is that it's difficult to customize. You're limited to one of their pre-designed templates. Even minor tweaking is a nightmare. And it suks when your site looks like so many others.

Before we discuss CMS'es, you should know that Drupal won the Packt Publishing award for best Open Source CMS two years running (both 2007 & 2008). These awards were chosen by guys who know their CMS'es. Tho the judges admit:

There isn't necessarily one CMS that is "the best," but rather the best is the one that best fits a user's needs.

It's unlikely the judges actually used all the CMS'es themselves, since there are so many. Joomla came in second. It's probably the single most popular CMS out there.

Regulars might recall when I installed a copy of Ubuntu Linux last summer .. an operation I prepared for by creating a separate 20-gig partition (on my new hard drive), which I formatted as EXT3.

Somebody in the forums (Nigel, I think) suggested using VMware (.. either the freebie 'Player' or full-boat 'Workstation' ..) to run a 'virtualized' installation.

I initially balked at the idea .. cuz I didn't grok how virtualization works. But you don't need to understand how an automobile works in order to benefit from driving one. Same goes for virtualization. And the benefits are substantial.

The coolest thing about 'virtualizing' a Linux installation .. is that you can run it from (within) Windows .. just like you can run Photoshop (from Windows) .. or any other Windows-program for that matter .. multitasking all of them at the same time.

I found that .. if you can only use/access Linux by booting into it (and thus leaving Windows behind), you're less likely to use it (.. or so it has been my experience).

So last week I deleted my EXT3 partition, and reformatted it as NTFS .. where I installed a virtual machine containing Ubuntu 8.10 'Intrepid Ibex'.

Intrepid even found my wireless adapter upon initial boot-up. (Woo-hoo!) No more having to troubleshoot wireless connections and installing proprietary drivers just to get internet access.

The only drawback I've found is that you can't copy-n-paste info/text (such as passwords, etc.) between programs running in Windows and those running in (virtualized) Linux. (Tho I wonder if this might help.)