I run across a lot of people that are new to setting up websites and have a lot of questions. One of the main questions that I have run across is what version to I use? Most have a already had to choose between Drupal, WordPress or Joomla, and not they need to choose a version to setup and install.

Drupal currently has 2 main versions suitable for a production website, v5 & v6.

http://drupal.org/drupal-5.0

http://drupal.org/drupal-6.0

But what do I tell people? Well the short answer is v5 has thousands of modules available, but v6 has a longer shelf life. The next question would be ‘Why are there two versions?’

Drupal development has a policy of non-backward compatibility between major versions, so they can keep up with new technology without carrying past ‘baggage’; it keeps the code neat, lean and fast. But this means that drupal’s modules must be rewritten for each major version. All the v5.x modules only work with D5, and all the v6.x modules only work with D6.

Re-writing and testing modules takes time. There are a thousand more modules for D5 (which was released over a year ago) than there is for D6 (released 6 months ago). In that respect, D5 is a lot more powerful and useful than D6 at the moment. But D6 will become more powerful in a few more months as more modules are written/rewritten.

Until then, there are tens of thousands of users who need D5 to still be maintained with security patches, because they can’t upgrade to D6, because the modules they rely on haven’t been rewritten yet.

Which should a new user choose?

If your site needs to become live quickly (a few weeks) and/or you need powerful or unusual features (especially community orientated), then D5. Although I fail to see how a noob can get a site up and running within a few weeks, unless it is simple, small personal site and they just throw it all together and hope for the best without knowing what they’re doing. I’ve been planning my first site – a large school site – for two months and I’m still nowhere near ready to put it all together with all the pieces in place and working.

If you need a simpler, no frills site, with normal features and/or you’re prepared to wait a few months to see new modules emerge, then D6.

The quotes above were pulled directly from the Drupal Fourms, more info can be found HERE

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