The Mambo Open Source Content Management System (CMS) is arguably the most popular CMS in the world. Since its initial release to the Open Source community (via the GPL license) in April of 2001, the core files have been downloaded more than 5 million times. Why is Mambo so popular? For a start, it's easy to set up and get running because Mambo has been developed for the masses.

With 5 years of development to date, the system is stable and reliable. Mambo is one of the easiest systems to administer. It doesn't even require the user or administrator of the system to know HTML to operate or maintain the site. However, the Mambo system is complex and is under-documented. There is a wide variety of functionality in the core (default) system. Some of the functionality is complex and not intuitive - making it particularly difficult for new users to use the system to its fullest.

Mambo is Open Source software and can be download and used free of charge. Below are some links to get you started:

• The Mambo Foundation: This is the non-profit organization that governs and protects the Mambo Open Source project.


• The Source: This website contains the source code for the Mambo CMS and also provides related information.