Drupal 7 Beta 2 and New Nutshell

I'm sure most of you by now have already downloaded and played with any of the two beta versions of Drupal 7 that has been release, and so have of course I done.

Without a doubt, Drupal 7 is going to make a massive impact on the CMS/CMF market when it, and a bunch of the top contrib modules, are in official released version. Sure, it still has a long way to go before it will be as easy to install and get going with as for example WordPress and Joomla. The distance to those two is much much smaller though.

Distributions

I, Like Dries, share the opinion that distributions will play a very important part in the future for Drupal. Already there are several very good and advanced distributions available and they are just getting better for every release.

The really cool thing about Distributions is that it is basically Drupal Core, plus a bunch of contributed modules and custom configuration. That is, it does not break compatibility with the Drupal project. After you have installed a distribution you can customise and expand it as you want in the same way as when you build a Drupal site from scratch.

Distributions will save time and it will allow users to get a new, and often very complex, site going in no time with very little skills needed. It will really show the flexibility and power that we have grown to love about Drupal.

Upgrades now Supported

Now when Drupal 7 is in beta, it also means that upgrading to new beta version, as well as release candidates and the officiall release is supported. I did a test upgrade from beta 1 to beta 2, with many contribs enabled, and it worked without a problem.

Beta also means that the upgrade path from Drupal 6 is also supported. I have seem some reports about problems with this though, but also many saying it has worked just fine.

Contributed Modules

As expected, the activity around contributed modules have accelerated since beta 1 came out. Modules already in the works for it has more activity and the number of new modules being started on is growing quicker.

The Drupal 7 module pledge now has a whopping 212 modules listed and many of them are now available in test versions for you to play around with.

Start Building and Help Testing

Even though Drupal 7 beta 2 and many modules are working really well, it is still a long way to go before it is ready for production  websites. It is getting closer, but lots of hard work is still needed.

Since upgrading now is supported there is nothing more stopping you from starting to build new sites with it. It is the best way to help speed up the process of squashing the remaining bugs. Drupal 7 is different from Drupal 6 and it will take you a while to get used to the new features as well as all the changes made. Just testing it out, upgrading old sites or start building new sites is the best way for you to both learn it and help the community get it ready. So please start today if you haven't already.

Future of Nutshell

As I'm sure you have noticed, I haven't posted for some time. I have been busy with other projects and therefore Nutshell had to be put on the back burner for a while. I have been working on restructing Nutshell and I plan to launch a pre version shortly that will better organise the content and user experience.

The new Nutshell will have focus on Drupal, and in particular Drupal 7. I am planning a whole bunch of HowTo's, tutorials and other articles about it that I hope will be of benefit for both new and more seasoned users.

I am also going to enable the Drupal forum module so that we all can share experience and help each other with Drupal 7 related stuff. If everything goes well I plan to have new new site up and running within the next two weeks or so.

Till then, I hope you enjoyed reading this post.