A Survey of 2,368 Drupal Sites(blamcast.net)
blamcast.net
A Survey of 2,368 Drupal Sites
http://blamcast.net/articles/new-drupal-statistics
1 comments
Hmm. Have you actually used Drupal much? The reason I ask is that you talk about "plug-ins" whereas anyone who's spent any time with Drupal will always refer to "modules".
In any case, I actually find that keeping up to date is very easy. It's dead simple to keep Drupal core and contrib modules up to date with security releases etc, especially if you use Drush (the command line tool). The pain comes if you want to move from one major Drupal version to another and only then do you have to rework a custom module or theme. Even so, there are tools to make it relatively easy. The fact that Drupal tends to introduce major architectural changes from one version to another is really a feature. It's meant that Drupal has become much more flexible, powerful and standards compliant with every major release. For some people that might not be worth the pain of dealing with the changes. Then again, why are you upgrading unless you want to take advantage of the new capabilities?
In any case, I actually find that keeping up to date is very easy. It's dead simple to keep Drupal core and contrib modules up to date with security releases etc, especially if you use Drush (the command line tool). The pain comes if you want to move from one major Drupal version to another and only then do you have to rework a custom module or theme. Even so, there are tools to make it relatively easy. The fact that Drupal tends to introduce major architectural changes from one version to another is really a feature. It's meant that Drupal has become much more flexible, powerful and standards compliant with every major release. For some people that might not be worth the pain of dealing with the changes. Then again, why are you upgrading unless you want to take advantage of the new capabilities?
drupalgardens.com from Dries' (creator of Drupal) company Acquia seems to fit the bill.
A hosted Drupal solution that did a good job of taking that pain away, while still giving you the flexibility of having any plugins you want would be nice product IMO.