Drupal
Drupal drops first big upgrade in five years and looks forward by looking backwards
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Saturday 18th of July 2020 12:53:39 AM Filed under
Open-source CMS software Drupal has unveiled its first major update in five years by launching a new version 9.0.
The biggest update is backwards-compatibility from version 8.0: the project's developers have styled the upgrade as not much more complex than adopting a point release.
"If you've kept your Drupal 8 site up to date, and have experience with updating your site to the latest minor version (e.g: 8.9.0) then you know everything you need in order to successfully upgrade to Drupal 9," says the release FAQ.
Upgrades are more complex for those using Drupal 7, the other currently-supported version of the CMS. Users are advised the 7-to-9 move "... can be thought of as a migration or re-platforming, although not as severe as moving to a complete different platform."
"Though there are major differences under the hood, the fundamental approach to managing structured data is quite similar. Significant work was also put into the Migration APIs over the course of the Drupal 8 life cycle, so the upgrade to Drupal 9 is easier than upgrading to 8 was a few years ago."
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Why Drupal is the Best CMS
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Tuesday 26th of May 2020 12:27:50 AM Filed under
Some CMS packages require a license, while free products may be unreliable. Drupal 8 is open-source software licensed under the GPL. It is distributed free of charge, with no restrictions on use. This means you can customize the functions as you see fit. Today, the sheer number of community-contributed modules is astonishing — over 43,000!
The platform may be refined and adjusted following your needs. You will not be dependent on Drupal creators. Features may be added and removed with ease. The open-source nature also means that functionality is under constant scrutiny from the vast international community, so any bugs are detected and fixed in no time.
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Mozilla and Drupal Leftovers
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 18th of May 2020 02:45:39 AM Filed under

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Mozilla goes full incubator with ‘Fix The Internet’ startup lab and early-stage investments
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Marco Zehe: The focus of this blog is changing
For years, this blog was a mixed bag between information about my official work at Mozilla and my personal views on accessibility. Now that Mozilla has its own accessibility blog, my personal blog at this space will contain less work-related material and more personal views on the broader subject of accessibility. I am also co-authoring the Mozilla accessibility blog, and will continue to inform the community about our work there. But this blog here will no longer receive such updates unless I find something personally noteworthy.
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Announcing North Studio CTO Dr. Shallon Brown as Keynote Speaker at Open Source 101 Conference
As a software engineer with over 20 years of Drupal and open source experience, North Studio CTO Dr. Brown is excited to answer this question during her upcoming keynote speech at the Open Source 101 online conference. This is a paid event geared towards open source developers, technologists, and students who hope to advance their knowledge and careers in the field of open source development.
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Drupal Community Raises $500,000 to Keep World's Leading Independent Open Source Content Management System Nonprofit Thriving
The CDC, NIH and Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders—among many others—depend on the power of Drupal, the largest independent open source content management system, to keep their websites dynamic and secure. But the cancellation of the Drupal Association’s annual keystone fundraising event—originally scheduled for May 2020—put the nonprofit’s finances in jeopardy.
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How Drupal 8 aims to be future-proof
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Thursday 6th of February 2020 01:30:05 PM Filed under
Thomas Edison famously said, "The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense." This quote made me wonder if "sticking-to-it" is contradictory to innovation; does it make you resistant to change? But, the more I pondered on it, I realized that innovation is fueled by perseverance.
Before Drupal 8 was introduced, the Core committee had not just promised to innovate; they decided to be persistent. Persistent in continuous reinvention. Persistent in making Drupal easier to adopt—not only by the market but also by developers with various levels of expertise. However, to be able to make Drupal successful and relevant in the long run, a drastic change was needed—a change that would build a better future. For this, Drupal 8 had to dismantle the Drupal 7 architecture and lay a fresh foundation for a promising future. Moving on to Drupal 9 (coming soon) and subsequent versions will now be easy and straightforward.
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Content Management: Alfresco, Document Management Software and Drupal 8.8.0
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 20th of January 2020 02:10:35 PM Filed under


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Alfresco Helps George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust Begin Its Paperless Journey
Alfresco Software, an open source content, process and governance software company, has announced the successful implementation of its Digital Business Platform by George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust to enable paperless processes. By digitising clinical and non-clinical forms, the Trust is able to make creation and changes quicker and easier, as well as give patients more control over their health and well-being. After just four months, patients and staff are seeing such a positive difference that there are plans to expand the usage of the Alfresco Digital Business Platform to digitise more processes.
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Should You Use Open-Source Document Management Software?
A document management system (DMS) can play an integral role in the organization and efficiency of your business. Companies that want a paperless office or a streamlined way to store and access digital documents turn to document management software. The most useful systems allow you to perform a variety of tasks like scan paper documents, control file versions, organize various folders, set user permissions and collaborate with other team members.
Not all applications are created equal; you must, therefore, choose a DMS that serves your needs and integrates with your other business platforms. Business owners and developers who want added flexibility and customization often turn to open-source DMS solutions.
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Drupal 8.8.0 is available
The last normal feature release of Drupal 8 includes a stable Media Library as well as several improvements to workspaces and migrations. The new experimental Claro administration theme brings a fresh look to site management. This is also the first release to come with native Composer support.
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Drupal 8.8.0 Released, Acquia Acquires AgilOne and More Open Source CMS News
Drupal 8.8.0 — the last normal feature release of Drupal 8 — is now available for download. Some of the updates in this release include:
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Drupal in Canada and in farmOS
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 9th of December 2019 05:14:08 AM Filed under
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Revitalizing the Canadian government’s online presence
Many government branches rely on proprietary software to power their websites and digital services. Using licensed technology can leave users locked in to costly and outdated platforms that are not easily updated, says Chris Smith, the CEO of Ottawa digital agency OPIN Software.
Several government organizations have teamed up with OPIN over the past year to make the switch to Drupal, providing a more streamlined and functional experience for Canadians and giving government IT managers more flexibility.
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Open Source Technology Could Be a Boon to Farmers
Chang, who started farming eight years ago and works full-time in information technology off-farm, searched for a different solution for his 14-acre organic vegetable and cut flower farm in northeastern Connecticut, finding software aimed at CSAs, which he doesn’t run, or marketing and sales, which he didn’t need. Then he discovered farmOS, a free, open source record-keeping software built on the web platform Drupal.
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Open source technology could be a boon to farmers
Robert Chang’s fellow small-scale farmers turn to each other when they need low-cost tech to stay organized as they plant dozens of varieties of vegetables each season and seek to consistently fill their community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes each week.
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In the case of farmOS, on the other hand, Chang says, “Nobody is mining it or monetizing it in any way. It’s yours. You can export it in whatever way you want.” And it is infinitely customizable, if you’re tech savvy. “Since it’s open source, you can change the code, if you want to do your own customizations.”
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Acquia/Drupal After the Vista Equity Partners Takeover
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Monday 18th of November 2019 05:39:02 AM Filed under


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Acquia, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert on open source, Vista, CDPs
Dries Buytaert: No. We were profitable, we really didn't need more investment. But at the same time, we have an ambitious roadmap and our competitors are well-funded. We were starting to receive a lot of inbound requests from different firms, including Vista. When they come to you, you've got to look at it. It made sense.
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New Acquia Drupal tools show open source loyalty post-Vista deal
Web content management vendor Acquia Inc. delivered new marketing automation and content personalization platforms for the open-source Drupal faithful and for commercial customers.
In late September, venture capital firm Vista Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Acquia, but commitment to Acquia Drupal open source content management applications remain steady, according to Acquia CMO Lynne Capozzi.
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A cure for unfair competition in open source
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Sunday 10th of November 2019 03:00:23 PM Filed under

In many ways, open source has won. Most people know that open source provides better quality software, at a lower cost, without vendor lock-in. But despite open source being widely adopted and more than 30 years old, scaling and sustaining open source projects remain challenging.
Not a week goes by that I don’t get asked a question about open source sustainability. How do you get others to contribute? How do you get funding for open source work? But also, how do you protect against others monetizing your open source work without contributing back? And what do you think of MongoDB, Cockroach Labs, or Elastic changing their license away from open source?
This article (in five parts) talks about how we can make it easier to scale and sustain open source projects, open source companies, and open source ecosystems.
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Drupal shows leadership on diversity and inclusion
Submitted by Rianne Schestowitz on Wednesday 16th of October 2019 07:48:50 AM Filed under

Drupal is far from alone among open source communities with a diversity gap, and I think it deserves a lot of credit for tackling these issues head-on. Diversity and inclusion is a much broader topic than most of us realize. Before I read DDI's August newsletter, the history of indigenous people in my community was something that I hadn't really thought about before. Thanks to DDI's project, I'm not only aware of the people who lived in Maryland long before me, but I've come to appreciate and respect what they brought to this land.
I encourage you to learn about the native people in your homeland and record their history in DDI's Land Acknowledgements blog. If you're a member of another open source project, consider replicating this project there. The more we know about people who differ from us, the more we respect and appreciate our collective roles as members of the human race.
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Drupal and WordPress News
Submitted by Roy Schestowitz on Sunday 6th of October 2019 02:07:11 PM Filed under


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Acquia Acquired for $1B, WordPress 5.3 on the Horizon, More Open Source News
Acquia has announced an agreement to receive a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners, which essentially translates into the investment company purchasing Acquia for a colossal $1 billion. The investment will enable the open-source digital experience company to continue growing its presence in the digital experience platform space. “Vista shares our belief that the DXP market is ripe for disruption and we are excited to partner with them to accelerate our plans,” said Michael Sullivan, Acquia CEO.
Acquia’s press release noted that Acquia will “continue to operate independently”.
This announcement came shortly after being named to the 2019 Forbes Cloud 100 for the fourth consecutive year and acquiring the first enterprise-grade, low-code Drupal website builder.
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Daily Buzz: Drupal's Big Buyout
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WordCamp Philly returns this weekend in all its open-source, community-powered glory
In an age where the internet’s attention is hyper focused on the most recent tweet, only to be distracted the next minute, WordPress’ decade-long staying power can be attributed to its diverse and dedicated open-source community.
WordPress values and strives to grow its community, and one of the ways it does that is through WordCamps. Philadelphia is home to one of the oldest WordCamps in the United States, and the annual daylong event is returning this weekend, Oct. 5 and 6, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
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People of WordPress: Alice Orru
Alice Orru was born in Sardinia, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. As a child, she dreamt of becoming a flight attendant, traveling the world, and speaking many foreign languages.
Unable to meet the height requirements of her chosen profession, Orru ended up choosing a different path in life, following the Italian mantra: “You have to study something that will guarantee a stable and secure job for life.”
The unemployment rate in Sardinia is very high, a challenge shared throughout the surrounding islands. In addition to that, Alice wasn’t that keen on having the same job all her life, as her parents had.
When Orru was 22 she moved to Siena, Tuscany, to finish her studies. That is when she created her first personal blog. The website was built on an Italian platform named Tiscali, which she later migrated to WordPress.com.
After 2 years in Tuscany Orru moved to Strasbourg, France. She studied French and worked several jobs while living there. Her first serious job was in Milan – working 40 hours/week in the marketing department of a large, international company. She found herself surrounded by ambitious colleagues and a boss who constantly requested extra —unpaid— working hours per day.
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Open Hardware: Raspberry Pi and Arduino
| Red Hat’s Disruption of CentOS Unleashes Storm of Dissent
Five weeks after angering much of the CentOS Linux developer community by unveiling controversial changes to the no-cost CentOS operating system, Red Hat has unveiled alternatives for affected users that give them several options for using existing Red Hat products.
But for many users of CentOS Linux, the Red Hat options won’t solve the huge problems that were created for them when Red Hat announced Dec. 8 that CentOS would no longer include a stable version with a long, steady future. Instead, CentOS will now only be offered as a free CentOS Stream operating system which will be a rolling release with frequent updates, essentially turning it into a beta OS that is no longer suitable for reliable production workloads. For users who have deployed CentOS throughout the internet, data centers, corporate and business uses and more, this is a potentially major blow.
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The Demise of Chromium as Free Software
| José Antonio Rey: New times, new solutions
Just as humans change, the Ubuntu community is also changing. People interact in different ways. Platforms that did not exist before are now available, and the community changes as the humans in it change as well.
When we started the Local Communities project several years ago, we did it with the sole purpose of celebrating Ubuntu. The ways in which we celebrated included release parties, conferences, and gatherings in IRC. However, we have lately seen a decline in the momentum we had with regards to participation in this project. We have not done a review of the project since its inception, and inevitably, the Community Council believes that it is time to do a deep dive at how we can regain that momentum and continue getting together to celebrate Ubuntu.
As such, we are putting together the Local Communities Research Committee, an independent entity overseen by the Community Council, which will help us understand the behavior of Local Community teams, how to better adapt to their needs, and to create a model that is suitable for the world we are living in today.
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