20 years of Joomla: my journey in open source

On 17 August 2025, Joomla will celebrate its 20th anniversary. And this amazing open source CMS to build websites and web applications keeps getting better with every release.

My work with Joomla

Twenty years ago, when Joomla was first released, I switched from Mambo CMS to Joomla. At the time, I worked three days a week at a software training centre. So I started building websites the other two days. By 2007, I’d quit my job and gone full-time with Joomla web development.

Volunteer for Joomla

I wanted to give back to the software that made my career possible, so I began contributing to the international Joomla community. I've been active in different parts of the Joomla project. It turned out to be fun, a lot of learning, and a great way to share knowledge.

Joomla Extensions

Some of the extensions that I’d built for clients, I made generic and released for free. User feedback helped improve the code and make them more useful for others.

Joomla Presentations

Back in school, I hated public speaking. But at the first ever JoomlaDay (April 2006, Breda, Netherlands), I gave my first Joomla presentation. It was scary… and surprisingly fun. Since then, I’ve become a regular speaker at Joomla events worldwide.

Some highlights from my 20 years with Joomla

2005 – Founded db8.nl to build CMS websites
2005 – Started answering questions on the Joomla forum
2006–now – Global Moderator, Joomla Forum
2008 – JoomlaDay Netherlands team (Utrecht)
2009–2015 – Joomla Community Leadership Team
2016 & 2017 – Joomla's Google Summer of Code Mentor for Joomla
2017 – Joomla Operations Department Coordinator
2018–now – Co-organizer, Joomla User Group Arnhem-Nijmegen
2021–now – Moderator, Joomla Stack Exchange
2023–2025 – Joomla Release Manager 5.2
2025–now – Treasurer, Stichting Joomla Nederland

With Joomla I experienced the power of open source software. It even inspired me in 2007 to fully switch my computer operating system from Windows XP to Linux. And to start a local Linux Usergroup in my hometown in 2012.
Are you using Joomla? What’s your Joomla story?
Please help to shape Joomla in the next 20 years!