By icekid on

Hello everyone,
I am creating my own social networking site using Drupal and was wondering which version of Drupal is best for me? I am really interested in all the modules and I would like Drupal to support them all or at least most. Which version of Drupal is best for me???

Thank you in advance

Comments

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

For a social networking site at this moment your only choice is Drupal 5. All important choices are not yet available for Drupal 6.

Things will change in late summer or autumn, but if you keep to popular modules with active development, upgrading will be easy.

And a general warning, using "all the modules" is an urge which leads to an unusable site, except if you invest in an expensive hardware configuration. Sort them out carefully.

icekid’s picture

icekid commented

except if you invest in an expensive hardware configuration.

can you explain what this more?

cog.rusty’s picture

cog.rusty commented

I didn't give it much thought when I wrote that, but from what I have read the main problems with using too many modules would be:
- increased memory size of apache processes
- increased number of database queries, and maybe more joins

These may result in crashes and timeouts. Some modules scale worse than others, so brute-force approaches don't always work.

Google for drupal "open buffet syndrome"

Also note that drupal.org itself, despite using replicated servers, it is rather stingy with modules: http://drupal.org/node/27367

yuriy.babenko’s picture

yuriy.babenko commented

The best version is the one that works for what you need :).

Figure out a list of functionality you require. Then figure out which modules you'll need to achieve this functionality. If all of these modules are available for Drupal 6, then D6 is the "best" one for you. Alternatively, you're stuck with D5 or custom module development.

---
Yuriy Babenko | Technical Consultant & Senior Developer
http://yuriybabenko.com

silverwing’s picture

silverwing commented

if most of the modules you need aren't ready for D6 yet, then you have to use Drupal 5. Period. Otherwise you'll have a site without the functionality you need and you'll just end up frustrated and hating Drupal.

Many modules will be made to work in Drupal 6... eventually. You should check their issue queues to see what's happening in their development towards 6.

~silverwing - Yeah, I'd start with Drupal 5

_____________________________________________
Land of Midnight | MisguidedThoughts | showcaseCMS