I’m a Perl guy. I like the language a lot – how it looks, how it works… Even if it isn’t perfect, I like it a lot. But I also love things that work, and Wordpress works.
I tried out Movable Type today, and while it is obviously a professional package, it doesn’t have the polish that Wordpress does. There’s little to no AJAX, there’s no rounded corners, theming is a disaster, and updating uses a popup that flickers at you as it refreshes for each stage of the process, but makes it look like something’s about to crash. Still, it is rock-solid, and has an excellent track record. And it’s Perl. It’s good… but it’s not great.
Finding and installing plugins and themes with Movable Type just cannot compete with the ease and elegance one finds in Wordpress. The interface is well thought-out – beautiful and functional simultaneously. That’s really the crux – the Perl competitor works, but it’s clunky and old-fashioned.
So, I’m using Wordpress. I’m not exactly ashamed of this, but I’m not happy that Perl doesn’t seem to have a credible alternative CMS. Why did Wordpress attract an overabundance of web and UI/UX designers? Why are Perl hackers so bad at making pretty things? (Okay, not everyone, but it’s a problem) And most importantly, what can the Perl community do to ensure our packages are as attractive (in every sense of the word) with the more polished competitors?