One of the criticisms one hears about Drupal is that it does not include a WYSIWYG editor in the the core distribution.  I've never had much of an opinion about this one way or the other.  I do most of my substantial writing locally and use the old copy and paste technique to get the resulting xHTML that is generated into Drupal. 

For a number of years, I used an html editor called HomeSite for generating and testing my web pages and also as the tool for writing articles and blog posts.  It's not a WYSIWYG tool, but I've become quite adept at inserting the xHTML markup as I'm composing text over the years.  My mode of operation has changed recently and this is why:

I've written previously about my genealogy web site.  The site uses PhpGedView, an open source application, to manage the server side genealogy content. 

PhpGedView, like other CMSs, has a user interface that supports data entry; however, in the case of genealogical data, entering data online is very tedious when there are more than a few updates to apply.  Until recently, I did the data entry and updating locally using  a commercial application called Family Tree Maker.  I then exported the updated information to a GEDCOM file and  uploaded the file to PhpGedView.

This procedure worked well for me until my recent acquisition of a new desktop PC running Windows Vista.  It was no big surprise to find out that my ancient version of Family Tree Maker was not compatible with Vista and I needed to either update it or find an alternative way to do my local genealogy content management. 

Now that I had most of my "legacy" applications running under Win Vista, it was time to turn my attention to the drivers.  The only drivers that were installed to date were those that came with the system, which included drivers for an HP F4280 multipurpose printer.  I had two older printers (an HP 952C and an Epson CX3810) that I needed to find 64-bit drivers for.  So off I went to hp.com and epson.com respectively and found 64-bit drivers for both.  I installed the drivers and both printers were now up an running under Win Vista 64-bit.

In Part I, I had just taken delivery of my new desktop loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Patch 1 (SP1).  Once I got all the cabling done, it was time to turn the power on and let Vista do its thing.  Vista Home Premium ran through its initial setup and did a reboot with no problems incurred along the way.  I then installed the upgrade to Vista Ultimate, connected to the Internet and downloaded and installed the latest updates from the Microsoft.  Now it was time to find out just how many of my "legacy" applications would indeed run in a Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit environment.

I was planning on buying a new PC for a while now.  As I thought about just what hardware and software configuration I wanted, it occurred to me that there was one important decision that I had to make.  The decision wasn't about the PC hardware as this stuff is pretty much commoditized these days.  Rather it was regarding the operating system.  I'm well-versed in both Windows and Linux, but truth be told, most of the applications and tools I use on a day-to-day basis are Windows-centric.  I'm still not convinced that Linux is ready for prime time as my desktop operating environment.

That left me with the choice of continuing on with Win XP or finally dealing with Win Vista.  In the past I had been an "early adopter" of the various incarnations of Windows through the years, starting with the first semi-decent release (Win 95) way back when.  But I was really hesitant to migrate to Vista.  It wasn't due to all the negative press and Vista bashing on forums and blogs.  Those of us who have been around for a while heard many of the same complaints about Win XP.

I recently attempted to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 on my vintage 2003 Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop.  And for the first time ever, I encountered a problem which I could not fix myself, or find a solution for out there on Google.

The problem I had was that the SP3 install would go belly up about 2/3 of the way in with a cryptic "Failed to install catalog files" error message.

I tried for the better part of a week to isolate and resolve the problem with no success.  I found some articles regarding this error and suggested fixes in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, but none solved my problem.  I also found a few suggested fixes via Google, but again they did not solve the problem.

I just finished updating my laptop from Ubuntu 7.10 to the new Ubuntu 8.04 release.  All went well except for one thing.  In addition to many other improvements, Ubuntu 8.04 installed a new version (2.6.24-16) of the Linux kernel.  Now this would seem to be a good thing.  But, once again a Linux distribution failed my "Ready for Prime Time" test...which is to provide me with a working 802.11b/g, or "Wi-Fi," interface with little or no pain my part.

Drupal 6 RC2 was released yesterday.  And, I must also say that the more familiar I have become with Drupal 6, my previous opinion that building Drupal themes is not as straightforward as building Joomla! templates has mellowed quite a bit.

Why the change of heart, you ask?  Read on to find out...

Drupal 6 RC1 was released on 21 December.  The last Beta (4) was fairly stable so maybe it won't be too long until a Drupal 6 stable release hits the streets.  I think there's a good chance that the Drupal 6 and Joomla! 1.5 stable releases might occur within weeks (or maybe days) of each other.

I've been fooling with both Joomla! 1.5 and Drupal 6 for quite a while now.  Both are significant improvements over their predecessors.  For example, Joomla! 1.5 has made significant improvements in their SEF implementation and intoduced template overrides; Drupal has made significant improvements in caching and has also simplified theming.  Buildng Drupal themes is still not as straight forward as templating in Joomla!, but this lastest release takes a big step in the right direction.

Congrats to both the Drupal and Joomla! core teams for making my two favorite CMS's even better!