Drupal lead Dries Buytaert announces a completely new Drupal CMS 23 years after its creation

Twenty-three years after creating Drupal as a university student and hundreds of thousands of websites later, Dries Buytaert announced today that a new version of Drupal will launch at the end of 2024. Drupal is an Open Source CMS that is foundational to a great digital experience platform. Its reliable, highly secure, and flexible tools build the versatile, structured content needed to create dynamic web experiences.

PORTLAND, Ore., May 8, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Twenty-three years after creating Drupal as a university student and hundreds of thousands of websites later, Dries Buytaert announced today that a new version of Drupal will launch at the end of 2024. Drupal is an Open Source CMS that is foundational to a great digital experience platform. Its reliable, highly secure, and flexible tools build the versatile, structured content needed to create dynamic web experiences.

This new version of Drupal will incorporate the best of the 50,000+ modules created over the past decade into a curated, out-of-the-box experience for organizations wishing to build powerful websites quickly.

"We built this amazing platform to power the most robust digital experiences. And now we will make it more accessible to non-developers," said Dries. "Drupal Starshot is an initiative that will deliver this new version of Drupal within eight months."

"The Drupal Association is excited to support the Drupal Starshot initiative and to begin marketing the new version of Drupal as the first, best stop for those interested in understanding what Drupal can do," said Owen Lansbury, Chair of the Drupal Association's board of directors.

On 6 May, founder and project lead Dries Buytaert gave an inspiring keynote?also known as the Driesnote?introducing this completely new version of Drupal: Drupal Starshot.

Dries described how, much like the race to space in the 1960s, Drupal is also in a race. The web is moving forward, with or without Drupal. Drupal has a long history of being a leader in the Open Web, but it needs its "Moonshot" moment. Dries reiterated how the future of Drupal's success will come from broadening its usability to a wider audience. The way to do this, Dries said, is to open Drupal's powerful tools to non-developers.

What is Drupal Starshot, and how does it differ from the traditional version of Drupal? Drupal Starshot will leverage Drupal Core but have a different governance model to move fast, allowing for more innovation more quickly.

After Drupal Starshot is introduced, when someone visits the Drupal.org download page, both traditional Drupal Core and Drupal Starshot will be available (under a different name, still to be determined). When Drupal Starshot is selected, it will automatically download the features that the user wants for their use case, making it easier for new users to try and test out Drupal, all from right in their browser. Drupal Core will still be the fundamental building block of Drupal Starshot and can still be used independently from Drupal Starshot for custom builds.

How will this new Drupal be different?

The Drupal that exists today, known as "Drupal Core," will continue to exist and will be maintained by core maintainers. The Drupal Starshot initiative will introduce a new version of Drupal with a fully featured out-of-box experience.

Features that Drupal Starshot will include are:

• Next generation page builder
• Project Browser + Recipes
• Automatic updates
• Key contributed modules
• Easy configuration
• Default content
• And possibly more!

Drupal community members who are interested in contributing to the development of Drupal Starshot can submit their interest via this interest form or join Dries at several Birds of a Feather sessions happening during DrupalCon Portland.

Watch the full Driesnote on the Drupal Association YouTube Channel.

About DrupalCon

This year, DrupalCon North America is a four-day conference held in Portland, Oregon, from 6-9 May. Over 1,300 professionals and Drupal users collaborate on the project for a week. The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization that caters to the needs of Drupal and its worldwide community. It focuses on the growth of the Drupal community and supports the project's vision to create a safe, secure, and Open Web for everyone.

About Drupal and the Drupal Association

Drupal is a powerful open-source content management system for everyone, from small nonprofits to enterprises. It is used by millions of people and organizations worldwide, made possible by a community of 100,000-plus contributors and enabling more than 1.3 million users on Drupal.org. The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the Drupal software project, fostering the community, and supporting its growth.

Media Contact

Christina Lockhart, The Drupal Association, 1 503-468-4400 732, [email protected], drupal.org

SOURCE The Drupal Association