The chance that I can learn something useful over the internet is highly likely only when I go to sources where content is filtered, aggregated, and popularized by others intending to do the same thing. I was browsing through “Slideshare” earlier today when something caught my eye. It was a slide deck talking about how WordPress is simple, easy to use, and easy to setup whereas Drupal is difficult to use comparatively even though it can do everything that the former can do. WordPress’s popularity was shown by comparing the number of installations, the number of plugins, and the number of themes in relation to Drupal.

Drupal vs. WordPress

We’ve had the software debate in the Rainbow Portal community for a long time about making our software simpler. The time has come. We have to act now. Rainbow has been sitting in the back ground while derivatives of the original iBuySpyPortal such as DotNetNuke, derivatives of Rainbow such as mojoPortal has continued active development. Unfortunately their time and effort has resulted in substandard software. DotNetNuke is still heavy to use, and mojoPortal for a lack of a better word still “s$%ks”. I’m not saying that the current “Rainbow” is any better, just that we can do better.

Not only does our software need to be easy to use for end users by making it easy to install, upgrade, and install add-ons, we need to make it extremely easy to develop for. The tools that Microsoft now supplies such as the Web Platform Installer and Web Matrix (which comes with WPI 3.0) make it easy for us to deploy software such as DNN, WordPress, and nopCommerce. However, I want the next version of our software to be easier to use, quicker to install, simpler to develop for, and most difficult of all, more fun to run a company with.

Please review this slide deck whether you are a user, a developer, or a business person because it shows one basic fact which we keep forgetting. Keep it simple.