#Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Mautic. All PHP-based, all use Composer, all have talented & passionate communities. And all share the same problems around growth and sustainability. There is a solution.
No, we should not merge the codebases. Sure, you could have AI "Ralph-Wiggum" its way to a monstrosity with passing tests. But these frameworks are trusted for their code quality and security, and using AI to Frankenstein-smush them together would destroy that trust instantly.
What I'm proposing is merging the communities behind a single framework.
Why now? Because (yes, I'm going there) while AI can't merge codebases, it can help developers who already know PHP, Composer, and open source ramp up on a new framework far faster than before. The barrier to a knowledgable human using a different technology has never been lower.
Disclosure: I work in the Drupal ecosystem. I don't know the other frameworks well enough to pick "the one." But I think it's time for outside-of-the-box thinking.
I know the frameworks do not serve the same use cases. But there is more overlap than many realize.
For example, Magento is commerce-focused - and Drupal core is not. However, Drupal has a robust "Drupal Commerce" offering which has served enterprise clients well for many years, and we're all open source - we can use each others' expertise to port features and fill gaps in the selected framework.
Think about what unifying behind a single framework gets you:
- The talent pool roughly triples overnight
- Clients stop abandoning ship because they can't find developers
- Specialized expertise from each community flows into one project instead of four
- New developers actually feel confident betting on a PHP framework
- Redirect the money currently funding work which would become redundant towards improving the selected framework
Now the hard parts:
- Each community has its own culture, leadership, and identity
- Developers switching frameworks are at a disadvantage when applying for work
- Millions of existing sites on the "historical" frameworks still need security updates
- Picking "the one" would be a painful process that many won't accept
- Merging communities, especially(?) leadership, will surely come with merge conflicts
Four separate communities with the same tech stack, overlapping goals, and shrinking talent pools just feels inefficient and unwise.
What do you think? Chime in on this LinkedIn post