♠ Technology ♠
Dragonfly Networks uses a wide variety of hardware & software in our work. However, we have a tendency to focus on core technologies, and we think arguments about which operating system/hardware platform/text editor/concurrent versioning system is the “best” are pretty silly.
We use this stuff to do this stuff.
“I’m a Mac!”
“And I’m a P.C.!”
“Well, I’m Linux!”
“Hunh. I guess that makes me OpenBSD.”
Anyway, we really don’t care too much about that debate, although the commercials are funny. But what we do care about is making sure that our clients are equipped with fast, rock-solid solutions to their problems. So we tend to choose platforms with a proven track record, and recommend that our clients do the same.
When it comes to choosing a content management system (CMS), we feel that the argument has long been settled, with the clear winner being WordPress, of course.
We’re big fans of the WordPress project, and use it in some way, shape, or form on nearly every project. (This very website is driven by WordPress, you know!) We realize WordPress can’t do everything, though, which is why we also utilize Drupal or Joomla, or a multitude of other CMS solutions sometimes.
And, generally speaking, we do highly recommend using one of the major software projects for CMS-oriented projects. Sure, there is a certain romantic appeal to rolling your own, but our experience has been that projects that call for a hand-coded, custom CMS on the back-end are asking for trouble. The ones we’ve seen have usually finished extremely late, have been excruciatingly over budget, and are typically (and somewhat embarrassingly) filled with bugs, or are only partially functional.
(This is not to condemn all such projects, though; we just recommend that you consult with the experts before embarking on major, life-changing projects such as writing a CMS system.)
Sometimes, though, we, too need to roll up our sleeves, dive into a pile of code, and program something special for our clients, depending on their needs. Usually it’s to write an extension, plug-in, module, or theme for a special client, and it usually is a simple extension building on the main CMS the client has chosen, whether it be WordPress, Mambo, Joomla, Drupal, or Movable Type.
“I’m a Mac!”
“Well, I’m a PC.”
“Hmm. I’m more of an animal/human hybrid than any of those things. Also, with a chip implant.” – Mark Beihoffer
(We’re pretty sure that Mark doesn’t really believe he has a chip implant, but this is the Internet, and that is how crazy rumors get started.)