History: Tiki vs Joomla!

Similar

• Both are full-featured free and open source web applications written in PHP with which you can realize a very diverse variety of projects and use with a database such as MySQL.
• Both can run on standard, inexpensive hosting.
• Both are community-run projects

Different

• TikiWiki is more centralized. TikiWiki is the all-in-one model while Joomla! (like Drupal) is the small-core-and-add-what-you-need model. Each model has its pros & cons. Because of these design choices, TikiWiki has more features out-of-the-box. With Joomla, you can add tons of features via extensions.
• While TikiWiki is a very large and popular project (over 200 contributors to main code base and tens of thousands of installs), Joomla! is several times larger with millions of installs.
• TikiWiki is Wiki-centric, whilst Joomla! is more web publishing centric. Please see (if) Why Wiki Syntax Is Important to your project.
• Joomla! has extensions for features that TikiWiki doesn't have, ecommerce for example
• Joomla! is GPL, TikiWiki is LGPL. The main difference between the GPL and the LGPL is that the latter can be linked to (in the case of a library, 'used by') a non-(L)GPLed program, which may be free software or proprietary software.

CMS Matrix

Compare them at http://cmsmatrix.org.

Installation Comparison

A side-by-side, screen-by-screen comparison of a new installation. What can we learn?

Assumptions:

• Download the ZIP.
• FTP to your webhost.
• Open browser to URL

Joomla 1.5.8	TikiWiki 2.2	Discussion
Select language	Error message	Tiki's intial screen (the very first thing a new user will see) is basically an error message. There's a link to run the installer, but I thought that's what I was already doing! Tiki needs a better way of determining if this is a new install (that is, there's no local.php file). Joomla certainly looks a lot slicker. I like how there's a language choice, and the system was smart enough to automatically pick one for me (based on my browser). Since the Tiki installer is already multi-lingual, certainly this could be incorporated.
Pre-installation checklist	None	Tiki does check for system requirements, but this is done after the installation. It would be nice we if checked for: *PHP version *PHP memory *Basic security checks (that we already do on the Tiki Security page) *mail() function
License Agreement	None	Other than the README, does the Tiki installer ever mention the ELUA or explain LGPL license?
Database Configuration	Database Configuration	Very similar. Joomla's Advanced Settings allow you to customize the table prefix. Joomla does not require that the table already exist; Tiki does.
FTP Configuration	None	Tiki has no direct FTP support
Main Configuration	Install	While the work on Tiki profiles (this is similar to Joomla's Install Sample Data) could greatly improve the initial configuration of Tiki features, it is nice that Joomla prompts new users for some basic site information. Prehaps Tiki could also populate some of the common General Admin items: *Site name *Sender email *Admin password (would eliminate the need to prompt for password change at first login. Also the elimination of a default password would be a security improvement). *Default timezone *Site Logo
Finish	Installation complete	Joomla forces you to manually remove the installation directory — Tiki allows you to click-lock the installer, then enter the site immediately. A lot of Tiki's "imporant information" is displayed on Joomla's "Checklist" screen.
Initial site	Initial site