Using Moveable Type has given me a lot more insight into what I’m looking for in a content management system
I used to think that it ought to run on the Mac and be built into FileMaker, or even AppleWorks. While I still think Apple should bundle a good, simple CMS with Mac OS X; it seems a lot smarter to make it server-based and give it a web interface so that it can be installed on Macs, Unix hosts, or even Windows.
The idea CMS will be easy to install and users shouldn’t have to worry about a the Unix command line.
The ideal CMS should make it as easy to manage tables as it is in FileMaker. I don’t care what database it uses underneath, as long as it’s free, relational, and common.
The ideal CMS’s templates should be easy to create, and sets of default templates should be included for multiple applications (Weblog, database, magazine, and so on). The templates should be designed from the bottom up to use Cascading Style Sheets for formatting.
The ideal CMS should make entries as easy to create and maintain as they are in Moveable Type.
And it ought to be cheap. OK, free.