[TYPO3-UG India] Few Questions about Typo3

[Rahul Dewan [srijan.in]]

Hi,
> I would NOT use typo3 again:
>   
We've been working on Typo3 for 2 years now, and have a team of 10 
people at our office here, building applications on Typo3 for customers 
worldwide.
> 1. Its cumbersome
>   
I agree, it has a far steeper learning curve than say Joomla, Postnuke 
or other Content Management Systems. Typo3 should be seen more as a 
Framework, rather than an out-of-box CMS.
> 2. far more complex than necessary
>   
Well, I was at the Tycon3 in Germany last year and there was a debate on 
whether we need to pitch Typo3 against easy-to-setup CMSs or projects it 
as an ECMS and compete with the Interwovens and Vignettes out there. 
Kasper (the original creator of Typo3), also shared the view that it is 
more exciting to compete with the expensive commercial ECMSs. So, yes, 
if you want more power, it will be more complex.

However, as Rajesh has pointed out in another email,
> 3. lots of documentation and tips are in German only
>   
Absolutely incorrect. Typo3 is "one of the most well documented" Open 
Source project, with most of the documentation in English. While there 
maybe a lot in German, but there is an extremely conscious effort 
towards making English the primary transaction language. Even on very 
closed lists (few people, say from Germany) on specific applications 
under development in Typo3, if there are posts in German, someone or the 
other, makes sure to point out that the list is meant to be in English 
primarily.

I think there is a very conscious move towards internationalising Typo3 
and reaching out all over the World. "Inspiring to Share" was coined 
with this vision in mind.
> 4. narrow field of experts
>   
If you are talking about India, then even Plone/Zope, Alfresco, 
eGroupware, and so on... all complex frameworks and products in the Open 
Source world have few experts.

Worldwide, Typo3 has over 122,000 registered users on Typo3.org. The 
community is increasing very very fast.
> 5. prone to break down
>   
We've not had issues in the 2 years of implementing:
- www.bhartiairtel.in
- www.fieldfresh.in
- building apps for a customer in Europe who has their complete Intranet 
and Extranet implemented on Typo3, which has been integrated with SAP as 
well.
> 8. very difficult to learn for new users
>   
Already answered.
> 9. expensive to maintain and host compared with competition
>   
Agree. It is resource intensive and therefore from our experience 
hosting could be expensive. Not sure what you mean by "expensive to 
maintain". We've
> 10. NOT intuitive, particularly in the back end.
>   
Well. I was completely averse to using Eventum as our internal ticketing 
system. With some pressure internally, I am daily creating and closing 
10-15 tickets across projects across our company. Everything takes a bit 
of familiarity. 

Besides, depending upon what users are required to do, their BE can be 
simplified. The Admin screens are surely complex at first sight. That's 
also a trade-off for a complex application. However, there is a trend 
worldwide where Open Source apps are being taken up by Usability experts 
for evaluation. Maybe something like this will happen with Typo3 in the 
future.
> There are better options out there... Note finally that google has
> recently gotten behind Drupal and I bet you and your (client?) will
> appreciate the larger community.
>   
Unable to comment on this, as I personally have no experience with 
Drupal, but maybe some of my colleagues on this list can answer this.
> Typo3 will do a slow sunset into obscurity.
>   
There is a definitive roadmap upto 2009, and a thriving Typo3 
Association with members from all over the world. You'll see more and 
more of Typo3 out there. It's catching up big time in USA/Canada as well 
now. We've helped customers in Canada move from Plone to Typo3, because 
they do not have enough local support on Plone (this by no means is a 
tirade against Plone; just a statement).

The popularity of Typo3 in Europe, specifically Germany is so huge, it 
is unbelievable.

Anyway, I'll leave you with these comments from a person who is using 
Typo3 and helping customers adopt the same, from a user's perspective. I 
am not a techie. Maybe my colleagues can answer more techie questions. 
By the way, we'd be in a good position to answer, as we've got in-house 
competence in Typo3, Plone/Zope, and very soon will be doing some 
internal work on Drupal, Joomla, Alfresco, etc. to make good 
comparisons, and ofcourse diversify our service base.

Thanks.

Warm Regards,
Rahul Dewan

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