Info Needed on Joomla

[BellisimaJ.]

I know nothing about Joomla, except that you can use it to develop a site and that it is open source.

If you use Joomla, do you still need a cart?

Does Joomla work with a zen cart, if so?

Is it a good option for the tech challenged?

Any and all info appreciated.

[regic]

It's one of the most hacked into programs around.  9 security holes found in the past month - 4 of which remain unpatched. 

http://secunia.com/search/?search=joomla

[BellisimaJ.]

Thanks for the fast response Regic. Definitely don't need that! 

[misteroriginal]

Love you, Regi!

But Joomla itself is probably OK, and it appears to be better than Mambo, from which it forked. The reasons for the Joomla team walking away from Mambo included security issues, so it is perhaps going to take some time to address everything.

For a rough, non-scientific assessment, Secunia lists 16 advisories for Joomla
http://secunia.com/search/?search=joomla

Compared to 40 for Mambo
http://secunia.com/search/?search=mambo&w=0

Compared to 225 for Internet Explorer:
http://secunia.com/search/?search=internet+explorer&w=0

The problem with Joomla seems to be related more to the extentions that are not checked thoroughly enough. I think that is what they need to figure out. The shopping cart module for Joomla is VirtueMart which is beautiful, but certainly not as feature rich as ZenCart.

Finally, Typo3 seems to be a much more secure alternative with much more stringent requirements for modules made available through their website. Unfortunately, there is no shopping cart module, again, that is as feature rich as Zencart. Despite it's awful sounding name (typos in the prrogramming????), it only has 3 Secunia advisories:
http://secunia.com/search/?search=typo3&w=0

I think the CMS software is preferable if your store is a small part of a much larger website; otherwise, Zencart is the way.

[BellisimaJ.]

Thank you, Mr.O. I've decided to go with Zen for the time being.