It all started with a...fork.

Fifteen years ago, a group of people decided to follow their vision and principles and take a different path than the one that was planned for the future.

The community supported them, and a long journey began that reached many goals and achievements. Now, we are facing the challenges presented by an ever-evolving internet, with many things to offer and still with a long list of To-Dos.

Joomla is a product that empowers millions of websites. At the time of my writing, about 2.5% of the web runs on Joomla. Coincidentally, in these 15 years, Joomla has 15 versions released (major and minor. Yes, I counted them ) and has been downloaded over 115.000.000 times.

Joomla is also a Community. It is a product made by volunteers; a team of web developers and designers, administrators and marketers, translators and documenters, professionals and hobbyists, all working together to support Joomla.

Joomla, the product, and the community have grown and evolved together over these years. As a celebration of these 15 years, I have put together this list of 15 milestones, essential moments in the history of the open-source software:

• Joomla 1.0 was released on September 17, 2005. A rebranded and cleaner release of Mambo 4.5.2.3.
• The Joomla Extensions Directory (JED) went live on March 5, 2006: counting around 7000 extensions available today.
• The very first JoomlaDay: It took place on April 22, 2006, in the Netherlands, starting with a long series of events around the world.
• The Joomla Shop went online on February 11, 2007. A way to spread the Joomla love. By the way, have you already seen the lovely 15-anniversary special edition?
• First Pizza, Bugs and Fun event: In December 2007 this 3-day event took place simultaneously in Washington, New York, Mountain View, San Francisco, Vancouver and Brussels before the release of Joomla 1.5.
• Joomla 1.5 was released on January 22, 2008. This version was the first to attain long-term support (LTS).
• Official registration for Joomla User Groups (JUGs)s: on January 31, 2008, the registration for JUGs was implemented. JUGs had already been meeting since 2007, such as in the Netherlands and Australia, to mention a couple of examples.
• The Community Showcase went online: on April 8, 2009. A place to share your work with the community.
• A new Joomla Community Magazine, published in July 2010: A new issue every month to educate, inform, challenge, and inspire our readers.
• Joomla 2.5 was released on January 24, 2012. Also a Long-term support version, including for the first time multi-database support with the addition of Microsoft SQL Server.
• Joomla 3.0 was released on September 27, 2012, the next major release of Joomla.
• First Joomla World Conference: November 18, 2012. The first Joomla World Conference (JWC) was held in San Jose, USA to bring together Joomla users, builders, and developers from around the world.
• Joomla started to offer free website hosting on January 20, 2015. Starting with limited service to reach since 2018 what is today launch.joomla.org.
• Joomla 3.9 released on October 30, 2018. This version was not initially contemplated in the roadmap. Still, this version was launched including the Privacy Tool Suite, a set of tools provided to help to comply with Privacy Regulations like GDPR.
• Joomla 4: First Beta released at the end of May 2020, opening a period of testing and fixes until the release of the next major version of Joomla.

These achievements are just a sample of what the 15-year journey has been for Joomla. Of course, there are many other important events that are not included in my list.

Joomla has changed lives. I’m sure you have your own personal highlights: your first website made with Joomla, your first project, your first company, your first template, your first plugin, your first translation, your first accepted commit among many turning points.

The last 15 years have been very prolific for all of us.

Happy Birthday Joomla, and many many more to come!

Do you have an interesting Joomla story? Feel free to share it with the world! Send your idea (or article) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will contact you.

Sources:

• https://www.spreadthejoomlalove.com/
• https://www.joomla.org
• https://docs.joomla.org
• https://extensions.joomla.org/
• https://community.joomla.org
• https://www.wikipedia.org/