Drupal is Open Source
Drupal is an open-source, modular content management system (CMS) that comes with many tools to help organize, structure, find and re-use content on web sites and other applications. (Watch the video.) Open source software is not copyrighted (although it is licensed,) so anyone can download the source code, study it, change it and improve it. Drupal is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Open Source Software is known to build power through the collaborative manner in which it is developed.
Drupal is Versatile
Drupal offers a very sophisticated programming interface for developers, however no programming skills are required for installing and administering basic web sites. It runs on any computing platform that supports both a web server capable of running PHP and one of several database engines to store content and settings.
Drupal is Everywhere
Drupal is being used as a back-end system for about two percent of the world's web sites, including about 30-percent of US government web sites, more than 70 of the top 100 US universities and countless business, media and other simple to complex sites globally. Explore a few sites built on Drupal:
- Drupal Showcase
- Weather.com
- Directory of US Government Drupal sites
- Popular Science
- Economist.com
- data.gov.uk
- Fast Company Magazine
- Harvard University
- Yahoo! Research
- Twitter Developer Community
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- Tesla Motors
- Alachua County Library System
Drupal is Community
Because Drupal is built on an open development model, people who have a stake in its quaity work together to support it. Drupal professionals all over the world have developed organically into a highly engaged, quality-focused community that come together online, at local meetups all over the world, and at international DrupalCon conferences on every continent. This community, who work together and communicate openly to ensure their software remains secure and cutting edge, is growing, along with the capabilities of the software, and now total more than a million people worldwide.