Given the sophistication of, and the enormity of, the current generations of the Drupal digital experience platform (DXP) (i.e. Content Management System (CMS), it has been apparent for years that Drupal’s intended user demographic is, and has been, web development professionals. At this juncture, the major shift the Drupal CMS/DXP made in this regard some years ago has proven its value, despite the consequences, in part, that have included leaving behind a major portion of its past users, in favor of implementing Drupal’s more recent, and ongoing, evolutionary advancements and refinements.
When the 8th generation of the Drupal CMS/DXP was released in 2015, Drupal’s internal foundation (its core) parted ways with its prior generations. Most importantly, the major core changes in Drupal 8 did not provide any direct means for upgrading from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, or moving content from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, only an extraordinarily complex set of mostly command line oriented migration tools and scripts. When Drupal rewrote its entire internal structural foundation it alienated hundreds of thousands of Drupal users, many of whom had been using Drupal since as early as the 3rd or 4th generation of the Drupal CMS.
