Ok, so I have to use Drupal on a project[it just makes sense with 6 domains already in Drupal to use Drupal and not Joomla for another 3].
On the impressive side, Drupal makes multi-site EASY. Out of the box it assumes you might want to run multiple domains and has a directory structure setup to accomodate this. Everything gets installed to the /sites/all directory, and if you want something installed for one host only, you create a new directory, sites/mydomain.com and put it in there. With the addition of the Domains module, you can classify virtual anything form content to products in the online store as to which domain they should be displayed on[or all domains!]. With a simple configuration change, you can set your cookies to a root domain, so one.mydomain.com and two.mydomain.com will both save and access cookies for .mydomain.com [so within a single set of subdomains, you have single sign on]. And with another simple config change you can specify specific mysql tables as being shared between domains, or unique to one domain. All in all, an impressive set of features. Now the downside: this is not Joomla. Installation of modules and themes includes a number of manual steps. A lot of things are 80-90% done but you need to do a few final tweaks. In order of ease of use by the end user, I'd say you have WordPress --> Joomla --> Drupal In order of ease of customization by someone without a lot of technical knowhow, Wordpress --> Joomla --> Drupal In order of complex bits of functionality[online store, special modules, etc] I'd say it's Joomla --> Drupal -- > Wordpress In order of extremely complex customizations available, it is Drupal --> Joomla --> Wordpress In order of having sane database layouts and extensibility, it is clearly Drupal --> Joomla --> Wordpress In short, each CMS has different types of people it can appeal to, and different circumstances where it really really shines. I think that from a 3rd party point of view, there is a lot that could be swiped from Drupal and Wordpress and brought to Joomla. For example, the whole content editing process, I'd say a nice management template, outside the normal admin structure, and a couple of components to ease asset management, could be created for Joomla that mimics the way Wordpress looks and feels to make life easier for the end user. And at the other end of the extreme, some of the nice complex functions Drupal has could be redone to make them work for Joomla, assuming one is willing to bypass using some core functions[ie install a new search, installation, and template manager and disable the core ones to enable the multi-site functionality that comes with Drupal].
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