Right now there are two big CMS systems which have been recently released. As you may or may not know Drupal and Joomla are the two biggest open source CMS solutions. They both have big communites, and both have been used by companies and individuals to make big and important websites. But what the biggest thing that comes to mind is what is the difference between these CMS systems?

New Features for Joomla

The new Joomla 1.5 marks the first Joomla release which gets away from the mambo codebase. It has been completely rewritten from scratch.

Template parameters

Template parameters can be used to let administrators control the template structure. Administrators could switch color schemes, choose between a 2 or 3 column layout … or set the minimum width of the template.

Template Overrides

Simplified changing way an article is rendered and changing the table output to divs. Pagination rendering and module styles can also be extended.

Support for multiple css files

The template manager supports multiple css files and adds support for a special editor.css file that gets loaded by the wysiwyg editor in the administrator.

New Template architecture

It is now possible override all the html generated by the modules and components to suit his needs.
To allow this kind of functionality Joomla! 1.5 implements a solution called a ‘template view‘. Components and modules developed using this new API (application programming interface) can be automatically overridden by template designers. There are now two types of templates: the site templates and the extension templates. A site template defines the look and feel of your website while an extension template defines how a certain component or module gets rendered. The extension templates can be overridden in a site template. PHP code is now the template language of choice to implement presentation logic. patTemplate (the old template language) while still supported is now not used in core (it was slow, and it didn't work with PHP code).

Improved SEF URL implementation

Joomla now has even more capability for search engine friendly URLs. That means that even out of the box joomla can now have a better url than http://your_domain_name.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=2, something more like http://your_domain_name.com/index.php/About us (yes, that's right with the blank space).

UI Improvements

Joomla has added new perameters to theming elements. They have provided an easy way for themers to incorporate rounded corners. They also have a new menu system for the admin section. They also cleaned up the administrator section, so that it is cleaner. The new Joomla also has more icons and buttons added to the install process. And has ajaxified the installer.

UTF 8 Support

This means that more languages can be used on a Joomla site. And the installer can detect your language.

New Features For Drupal 6.0

Installer

The new Drupal 6 experience starts with the installer, which has been drastically improved. It now guides you through the initial setup steps, so starting a new Drupal site is significantly easier. Configuration parameters that used to be all over the place are now prompted for during the install so there are fewer steps necessary to get the site configured.
Languages

Improved Language Features

You will notice the improved language features as well, in both the installer and throughout using Drupal. Right to left (RTL) languages are now supported, interface translations are automatically imported, and you can translate your posts right from the built-in interface, without installing additional modules.

OpenID

The OpenID client module has been added to core. This allows your users to sign on your site with their OpenID accounts.

Actions and triggers

A new Trigger module has been added to core. The Trigger module lets you assign flexible configurable actions to several events happening on your site (eg. send an email when a post gets published).

Update status

The highly popular Update status module is now in core. This informs you about the latest bug fix and security updates for modules and themes enabled on your site, so you can always keep your site secure and clean.

Menu system

The menu system was rewritten from scratch, making it much more efficient. The menu interface is nearly identical so aside from the performance improvements, you will only notice the underlying changes if you are a programmer.

Theming

Theming has been made more flexible and easier by moving most of PHPTemplate engine deeper into core. Default template files (.tpl.php) can now be implemented by modules and a handful have already been converted. If you don't like the way something looks, just find the .tpl file, copy it to your theme, and change the HTML.

Book and Forum changes

The book module and forum module have been reworked from the ground up: it is now possible to have any type of content in forums (polls for example) and the book administration is simplified.

Caching

There have been significant improvements in drupal caching, this includes the javascript aggregator can greatly increase loadtimes on sites with multiple javascript files.

Breakdown

So as you can see I have laid it all out there the major features with both releases and I leave it up to you to decide. I picked drupal, but it really depends on the project your working on.

If your a developer and would like more information on how to get up to speed with drupal, you can also check out my post on the fundamental concepts of drupal for a php developer.