Not too long ago, I decided to have a go at upgrading my website. My original idea was simply to remove some elements on my page which depended on Javascript, to improve on the CSS design and then to possibly replace the trusty :mt: with a PHP-based system. Unfortunately, I did not get further beyond installing the engines (b2evolution and :wp:), porting of all the entries in my current blog using the tools supplied and played a little with the administration panel.

In the past week and a half, finally managed to get down to business and experimented with my b2evolution and :wp: installations. My experiences so far? Some of it is quite consistent with what I have read on the forums for these two excellent free blogging engines. More importantly, I am beginning to come to a decision on what is my preferred PHP-based system.

As many people have observed previously, as far as the aesthetics are concerned, b2evolution is the clear winner. The administration interface, the default templates, etc., for :wp: is, uh…, shall we say, kind of primitive – to put it mildly!? It is true there are some good third-party templates out there, but the stuff ‘out of the box’ all makes :wp: look the job done in a garage. *Incidentally, wasn’t that how both HP and Apple got started!? 🙂

Aesthetics aside, functionally (apart from multi-blog feature which :wp: lacks) :wp: and b2evolution are quite competitive. Furthermore, there seems to be many more plug-ins available for :wp: at this point; then again, is this perhaps an indication of the respective maturity of the two engines!?

However – possibly the deciding factor in the end – it seems that the codes for :wp: are slightly easier to understand and modify. Probably because I have been brought up on the pre-OOP days (having learnt the dependable Pascal and C during my undergrad days), I have found the codes in :wp: much easier to grasp, instead of trying to decipher all the class member functions, inheritance in b2evolution.

Final take? Time will tell…