I just don’t get most open source CMS systems out there. I mean, god damn, they all seem to be perfect for showing off a demo of the CMS itself (using the default template). Try to build an actual web site using the CMS with your own layout and site structure will result in endless file stabbing, coding marathons, blood, sweat, tears, insanity and general mayhem. CMS stands for Content Management System, not Coding Myself Silly. I mean I want a simple tool to create and update a custom layout front page plus a set of identical layout individual pages. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong.
First of all I need to disable all kinds of pre-enabled calendars, news sections, contact forms, trackbacks, pingbacks, rss feeds, flying bats, asslicks and whatnots. Then I need to disassemble the default "simple" theme which is always a complicated tangle of tables or mile long css definitions in the flavor of Web 2.0. Oh and you need to be careful not to remove a specific block of html code around the very non descriptive template variables, if you do you never ever get that variable to show content properly again.
Only after this you can start to plan and implement your own layout that is much harder than it seems at the first because if you delete a component from the layout you really don’t need either something else stops working or then it just appears even though you think you’ve just removed it from the site. Not to mention your site layout has to be divided in to several different files because the CMS system expects that you have a left side menu, top menu, right menu, footer, content column. All other layout setups are just impossible. Oh and don’t even dream about having two language versions if you want to keep your sanity. That’s just not possible without rewriting half of the CMS code yourself.
Finally after you have somehow created a decent looking site, they publish a critical security fix for the CMS, your site stops working. Usually there goes your theme flying out the window, you can watch it fly but it also makes you cry.