Distributions

I've put together a module for CCK 5.x to import/export content type, group, and field definitions. You can import a complete package of a content type with its group and field definitions into a new installation, or export selected field and/or group definitions from one content type and import them into another. Similar to the Views import/export function, you select the type, fields, and groups you want to export and it creates text you can copy and paste into an import text box as an import. It's built using the new drupal_execute() function which just chugs along and submits all the necessary forms, creating a macro in the export and playing it back in the import.

Cross-posting an email I sent to infrastructure list a few weeks ago, together with Kjartan's response.
It would be great if drupal.org supported distributions by the time Drupal 5 will be released.

The two mails (by Kjartan and me) outline a way to support distributions in an easy way (both for developers and end users). So what are your opinions on this?

This (somewhat old) post from Zacker does a great job summing up a catch-22 that comes along with an open source community like Drupal (allow me to excerpt):

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• most of the value created by the Drupal community that vendors and consultants rely on to sell as services to customers come from unpaid core contributions
• many of the seasoned Drupal core hackers are getting job offers left and right to come and do Drupal consulting full time.
• This is creating a scenario in which while many more people are paying their bills through Drupal hacking and more and more business are built around business value created by the Drupal community, it is not getting any easier to make sure the heavy lifting on core work is getting done.

What can we do now to make sure that some of the money coming into the community over the next year is put back in to supporting the core work that we as a community are relying on?

When Dries predicts,

there will bring a small tsunami of Drupal distributions built around a hosted service model...

Is he talking about providers, like Bryght or CivicSpace, serving up a wide array of custom distributions and related services as a value add to their customers? What I don't quite get (assuming I'm reading this correctly), is if and/or how their distributions would be different than any distribution properly borne out of, and freely available to, the community. In other words, in addition to the convenience, specialized skills and services, will there be profiles/distributions that only will be available thru certain providers?

Since Linux has become mainstream we have seen the shift in innovation move from the Linux Kernel itself to exciting distributions like Ubuntu.

Drupal can attract the next generation of design talent by preparing itself to support multiple profiles made available as Drupal distributions.

This is of strategic importance as Drupal needs more designers to compete against Joomla, Wordpress, and hosted application services like Google applications.