The Future: Drupal 8 or Backdrop

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joegml's picture

I have a couple of local clients in VT (one is a PEG station) who are running Drupal 6 and are in need of an upgrade/overhaul. I was thinking setting them up with new Drupal 8 sites would be the best thing for them rather than Drupal 7. Drupal 8 code is really different and too OO and complex/abstracted for my tastes and skill level. Drupal 7 is fully developed and has all the goodies at present, but it might not be supported in 5 years, whereas Drupal 8 probably will be.

While pondering this quandry I came across this post on Backdrop: http://www.jenlampton.com/blog/introducing-backdrop-cms-drupal-fork (check the 100ish comments!). I pretty much agree with Jen's take: Drupal 8 is not the way forward for smaller shops/developers with limited budgets and everybody in VT has a limited budget!

I have heard that Community Media is not excited about Drupal 8 either. Can anyone make any recommendations for the right way forward that works with a smaller budget and limited developer resources and skills? The local PEG station may not use any of the "Community Media" modules, but I think they have long term technology cost/benefit concerns similar to many folks in this group.

Any guidance greatly appreciated. Thanx all.

Comments

Keeping options open

synchlayer's picture

Hi Joe

Several Community Media Centers are actively using CMDrupal configurations to manage their station operations, for staff, producers, and TV playback.

We've been mindful that the amount of time it takes to deploy a fully fledged Community Media Drupal (CMD) site might mean that by launch the Drupal version could be outdated, and so have been pondering what the next major update will bring.

Our hunches about what to do when D7 is no longer supported are similar to yours: we remain amenable to a move to Drupal 8, but if Backdrop proves robust and more efficient to switch to, then it sounds like a promising candidate.

We've consequently tried to develop with this in mind, for the good of all those involved in the project, whether they're using one CMD module or the full suite.

Right now I think developing in D7 makes the most sense, even if it isn't the newest option, simply because there's much more support for this project in D7, and it still has several years of support to come.