Mambo 4.6 Released by Mambo Foundation

The Mambo Foundation has released Mambo 4.6, the first major release of its open-source CMS in almost two years, the group said Wednesday.

Two configurations of the new version are now available: a Complete version with the core system, including its most popular extensions and templates, and a Lite version with just the core files.

Under the old versions, extensions and features were too difficult to uninstall and therefore cumbersome for experienced users, said Ric Shreves, president of the Mambo Foundation board of directors. “So we stripped it all out, and made it half the size of the Complete version,” he said.

Future versions may be released in a similar manner, so that users could “mambo the system” the way they want it, Shreves said.

Shreves said he doubts large corporate users will be interested in Mambo, but believes the software will be competitive in its target market of small and midsize businesses. “For smaller portals, or internal projects, the use of an open-source product gives great flexibility to create highly functional solutions that would not be cost-effective with a proprietary product,” he said.

Mambo competes obliquely with Microsoft CMS products, but most directly with systems like those sold by Ektron.

Source files for 4.6 are available for download here.

-Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service (Beijing Bureau)

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