Review of Plone CMS
Plone is a content management system based on the Zope application server, which is developed in Python. Its primary development is carried out in week long binges referred to as “Plone Sprints” where developers meet to fix bugs and create new additions. Plone is open source, and it is covered by the GPL. It's name comes from the British band of the same name.
Problems You May Run Into
Plone is certainly a different kind of animal. Since it is developed in Python on the Zope application server, creating new Products (the Plone name for modules that add functionality) requires knowledge of both. If you are already familiar with both and enjoy using them, then Plone is certainly a viable option, but for those who have no Python experience or any experience in programming at all, the learning curve is going to be steep, and hiring python developers to create Products for you will be much harder than management systems written in the much more popular PHP language. Even so, there is still a large and active development community for Plone which is ranked in the top two percentile of open source communities in terms of size. Most of the add-ons are created by this community, so the prospects of learning the system and receiving support are not too bleak.
If you choose to use Plone, you will need a server with higher specifications than for many other management systems. The recommended minimums are 1GHz of processing power and 512MB of ram, but the operating system can be any type that has full python support. The upside to the requirements is that Plone is scalable, so if it works out for you, you're not likely to have to move to another CMS in the future to meet your needs.
Why You May Like Plone
If you enjoy being a part of a community that works on open source projects, then Plone can become more to you than the CMS you happen to use. Plone Sprints are a chance for developers to mingle and meet, and if you're having problems with any aspect of your Plone based website, it's always good to know someone who can help you on a first name basis. Otherwise, it's a great opportunity to meet and greet with like-minded people and foster friendships.
Plone is seeing an upswing in use by small businesses and enterprise level intranets, so from a developer point of view, it can make an interesting (and potentially profitable) specialization. Its a powerful and relatively easily extensible management system, and it comes preloaded with several handy features including: versioning and content reversion, wiki support, graphical page editor, and inline editng. Plone also offers an interesting networking feature for businesses. Documents and communication can get lost in the slush piles of daily email, but Plone's work flow engine creates a central database where important files can be stored and worked on cooperatively.
It may not be the best management system for everybody, but it certainly opens a lot of doors for businesses who already need to create custom add-ons for internal and external use.
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