Open-source web content management systems.

[randomness]

I figure there are at least a few people on my flist who know something about web content management, so I figured I'd ask around.

Our company has a not-very-extensive or complex website which is generated by a horrible, locally-developed Java hack. It is so awful that every time you make a change you have to wade into some Java code, edit the offending item, and then build the damn site from scratch.

This is inane.

Fortunately, everyone from the CEO on down thinks this is dumb, and I'm now looking for a solution. Also fortunately, this makes the bar very low regarding replacement solutions. Just about *anything* would be better. I'd even suggested just trashing everything and hand-coding a new site, but that's a little too old-school, because we do have some slightly more modern requirements.

Basically, here are some of those requirements:

Layout templates, so we can create a general layout once, and stuff content in as we need to.

(That implies, of course, that content and layout are separate; this is obvious but also a requirement.)

Some kind of integral change management system so multiple people can work on the site at the same time and not collide.

Open-sourced.

Running under Linux.

I don't get the impression that any of this is difficult to arrange. Really, the problem will be narrowing down the field to some reasonable number of alternatives.

So, thanks in advance to any and all of you who have suggestions. If you know other people who have experience in the field who don't know me, please feel free to point them at my query.

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

I think both drupal and joomla will do what you've asked here. I only have experience with the former.

(I can talk more about this, but I need to get on a plane shortly, so not just now.)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks! Joomla and Drupal are two of the packages the sysad here thought of also.

Safe flight! Looking forward to talking again.

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

I believe the Register uses Bricolage. At first glance, it seems to meet all your requirements, though first glances can be squirrelly that way. I periodically get update e-mails about Krang, too, but other than who the authors are, I don't know much about it.

[bwilder.livejournal.com]

I'm not 100%, but Drupal might work for you. Of course, it might also be a little too much to.
http://drupal.org/

[eclectician.livejournal.com]

Drupal gets another vote. Depending on how powerful you want it, you might actually be better off with just WordPress, which has some pretty nifty functionality. I don't know offhand if it runs on Linux.

Frex, check out this site - it's running on WP.

[serendipity9000.livejournal.com]

What about one of the slicker wiki implementations? For example I know that XWiki supports skins and CSS -- take a look at the XWiki info page over on WikiMatrix: http://www.wikimatrix.org/show/XWiki

[merlinofchaos]

If it helps I'm one of the top contributors to Drupal.

Also, I am in Boston. At DrupalCon. =)

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Interesting...my husband is one of the 6 folks at www.digital-loom.com and they do all their websites with Drupal. And I run www.technocation.org off drupal.