Drupal 8 is (going to be|already) out today. Drupal communities all round the world are throwing parties to celebrate the release of Drupal 8. As of this writing, we have 200+ locations across 6 continents hosting a party and I hear Antarctica will join us in celebrating Drupal 8 too.
So what’s the big deal? It is just a new version after all. Just in PHP community, we will probably see the release of PHP 7, Magento 2, and Symfony 3 within this two months. Why so much noise over Drupal 8?! Here are some of my reasons why I am over the moon about Drupal 8 release, and why you should be too.
1. Drupal runs 1 in 35 websites worldwide
Okay, Drupal doesn’t have the largest market-share in content management systems out there but it has a lot. With 1 in 35 websites running on Drupal, chances are that you have used a Drupal website more than once before now.
2. Drupal is highly scalable
Drupal runs some of the biggest and prominent websites in the world like weather.com, whitehouse.gov, energy.gov, legacy.com, and more. Drupal scales to any traffic while providing powerful features to administrators, editors, and end-users.
3. Drupal is the first product of PHP-FIG era
Drupal is written with clean and quality object oriented code. It was a great codebase years ago but it’s even better now with it’s adoption of various PSR’s by PHP-FIG. This means that it is easy for any developer to get started with Drupal 8 development in the shortest time; not just any PHP developer, but any developer.
4. Drupal has an awesome community
Drupal’s community is awesome! Period. I never cease to be amazed at the creativity of the entire Drupal community, their generosity, their kindness, their open mindedness, and their ability to resolve differences. It’s not easy to have 3000+ people contribute by code on a single version, yet we see that happen with remarkable ease. They are welcoming to everyone, all inclusive, and very supportive. I could write a whole post on this but let me end by saying that Drupal never fails on it’s motto – “Come for the code, stay for the community.”
5. Drupal is Open Source
Drupal is an Open Source software. It doesn’t just mean it is free; it also means that you are free to extend Drupal in any way you like and contribute back however you want. Drupal’s large community is a testament to this fact.
Drupal 8 Release Celebration
With 200+ parties worldwide, chances are that there is a party somewhere near you. Go, attend, and be a part of this awesome Drupal community. Use Drupical to find your nearest party and go mingle. If you find a contributor – someone who contributed code, tutorials, blog posts, podcasts, hosted events, spread awareness, anything… Thank them! We have Drupal 8 thanks to them, thanks to you! Thank you!