When we meet with clients for the first time and mention that we develop our sites using Joomla, most ask us; What is Joomla?
Joomla has always been an open source content management product which means there are thousands of free templates and extensions available which allow you to customise your website design easily and often without the need to hard code. There is also a fantastic community of developers and users out there (even right here in Melbourne!) always ready and willing to provide support and answer any questions or queries you may have. 

Pleease read on for further reasons why we choose Joomla.

We're based in Donvale, east of Melbourne. The whole team are Melbourne locals (or were*) We have a team of very experienced, local Joomla web designers, developers and programmers with a minimum! 8 years Joomla experience each. We are also a hosting company that host Joomla Websites too.  Stay local and host your Joomla Website in Australia!   Call us, meet us and get help with your Joomla website or development right here in Melbourne.

*Chrysti (10yrs Joomla exp) has since moved to Bendigo. So Melbourne and regional  lockdowns permitting she's regularly here in Melbourne to meet clients. Marguerite (8yrs Joomla exp) has moved from Melbourne back to Ireland. She now does a lot of our Joomla security hardening work overnight Melbourne time as well as Joomla design. But we can't get her back to Melbourne!

Please read on for more of our team's Joomla exerience and our involvment with the Melbourne Joomla scene from the very early days

Nick "I've been doing Joomla in Melbourne since before there was a Joomla!" 
Nick (our boss) and Artful were making websites in Melbourne with Mambo, Joomla's first name, from around late 04 to early 05. He remembers being really nervous when the Joomla community moved away from Mambo in Aug 05. "We'd done a few Mambo websites by then. It seemed like a great system and the change to Joomla made me very nervous."

Joomla 2.5 is end of life and has been for some time now!

At the end of 2014, Joomla Version 2.5.28 (the final 2.5 version) became "end of support" meaning that:

• No new versions or security updates
• New or updated extensions and plugins for your website won't work under Joomla 2.5
• No vendor tech support for any issues with Joomla 2.5 sites or plugins

That together with the forced PHP Upgrade of our server recently it is imperative that all Joomla 2.5 websites are updated or replaced. 

At present we cannot update the PHP version of your Joomla 2.5 site which places your site in peril!  We are keeping your site on the air by manually adding an obselete PHP version to it but one day soon the server will simply drop it! This is out of our hands and it is possible that we will not receive any warning.

Your site will be down and there will be no quick fix!  

Short answer

Cpanel (leading webhosting software) and PHP (the "operating system" for your website) will drop support for older PHP versions from Dec 2018. Current versions of Joomla, Wordpress and Opencart will be fine. Older versions may have isssues or just stop working all together. This is because older versions of Joomla, Wordpress and OpenCart were only written and tested to work on past PHP versions.

Now is a great time to talk to Artful about upgrading your site software to the latest version. We can also help you run a custom older PHP version to keep your site on the air. This is a short term "bandaid fix". Adding and switching to an older custom PHP version is not expensive but has issues for your website's security, speed and reliability.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record we can't emphasise the importance of keeping your website secure. You might think its overkill and a risk you are willing to take but we can guarantee you after being hacked once you will change your mind very quickly.

Hackers can steal user information, passwords, install malicious software, and can even distribute malware to your users. And all that without taking into consideraton the costs involved in getting your website and information back online if taken down.

What's in Joomla 3.8.7?
Joomla 3.8.7 contains several bug fixes and improvements, including:
Bug fixes and Improvements Various backend improvements for multi language websites (admin menus and associations).
Read more from Joomla.org