Free, open-source and CMS...in a word: DRUPAL. With a total of almost 2.2% of the entire web running and existing thanks to this amazing CMS, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that it has all begun in the dorm of a young student. To get in the form it is today, Drupal had to be the subject of a multitude of changes. Version with version, Drupal became more powerful, useful and simple to use. With a community that never ceases to amaze, Drupal is the next hit in the world of Content Management services.

In order not to forget about Drupal’s long path to success, we’ve decided to make a short list of all the versions that Drupal had to change to become what is today. Our devs used some of them, yet probably the only ones that can brag to have been using ALL the versions are Dries and a few of the initial creators.

The urban myth or Drupal’s beginning

Everyone in the community knows the story. On one side we have Dries Buytaert and Hans Snijder, brilliant young students with the common desire to make something, on the other side the necessity for an online meeting place. This is the common ground on which Drupal was built. When Dries graduated he wanted to put the website online. If the original name considered was “dorp” (Dutch for “village”), due to a typo, the domain became “drop”...maybe the most fortunate typo out there. Soon drop.org attracted more and more people who got involved in its development and on January 2001, Dries decided to release the software behind the website.

Drupal 1.0

With only 18 core modules, this modular CMS was simple to use and fully customizable. Users could change the color, the layout as well as the block position. All users could become contributors, which somehow happened.

Drupal 2.0

Probably the quickest release ever. At only a couple of months from the Drupal 1.0 release, Dries came with a new version that this time had the translation feature. Translating a website was quite difficult, but at the time it was a rather revolutionary technology. Ratings, user permissions, and comments were also accessible.

Drupal 3.0

Nodes, nodes everywhere. If you are working with Drupal, you should know that this was the moment when nodes were firstly introduced. Every content piece of a website was actually a node, and all nodes were interconnected.

Drupal 4.0

On June 15, 2002, this fourth version of Drupal was released. This release marked the internalization of Drupal, as more and more developers started adding valuable modules to the system. This is the first version with a taxonomy module. Also, this version marks the beginning of the multiple subversions.

An important milestone in the development of Drupal was the so-called “DeanSpace”, a platform that united the supporters of US presidential election candidate, Howard Dean. This was probably the moment when everything got real. With e-commerce modules, translation improvements and multi-site support, the sky was the limit for this system.

Drupal 5.0

Habemus jQuery and JavaScript libraries. Lots of theme improvements and an automated import of SQL, this was maybe the first version that looked a bit more like what we know in the present.

Drupal 6.0

Many websites still run on this version. Maybe the second most important moment in the history of Drupal, this is the version that attracted the White House (again with those .gov websites Drupal is so fond of). Lots of security updates and the Update Status module are our favorite features of this version. This is maybe the moment when lots of the Drupal devs out there started using Drupal as their main CMS.

Drupal 7.0

After three long years, on Jan 15, 2011, Drupal launched a great version that would offer all the necessary features for building any kind of website. We can still remember all those release parties that were held all across the globe for this version that is still actively maintained.

Drupal 8.0

On December 1st, 2012 Dries announced that the community started working for this new version. On November 19, 2015, this eighth and more powerful version was released...and the rest is history.

Now, just wait for Drupal 9.00!

And now let us stop bragging about the past and start making some Drupal history! :)