TuxRunner

 vs.  Yeah, I’m using both right now to manage a few different sites that I have…and I keep wondering which one is better for me to use for each.  I guess it all depends on what you want to do.  There’s a lot of overlap.  Both can use plugins and you can place content into “areas” of the site.  WordPress uses widgets, but you have to have a template that’s aware of widgets.  Joomla uses site modules that can be placed into positions pre-defined in the template you’re using.

Joomla is a lot more difficult to use, but that’s because of how much you can do with it.  It’s highly configurable.  WordPress isn’t that far off though.  WordPress is definitely better at doing single-person blog style postings with minimal categorization.  Joomla caters more to a larger collection of varied postings, and can handle postings from more people easier.

Out of the box, I’d say Joomla is more geared toward general use.  It can do blog-style postings out of the box, but WordPress presents better and is easier to use for this purpose.  I’d say if you were going to just create a blog, use WordPress.  If you need a Content Management System that is a little more diverse, more configurable, and can do more out of the box…get Joomla.  But just be aware Joomla has a steeper learning curve and will take you  a little longer to learn and get up to speed with.