Packt Publishing today announced Joomla! as the winner of "Best PHP Open Source Content Management System" for 2007.

The award marks the second time Joomla! has won a prestigious Packt prize. Runners up were Drupal, followed by e107.

The judges indicated that Joomla! is 'possibly one of the biggest success stories in open source of late'. "Its first release came in only September 2005 and since then has grown to be one of the most downloaded Content Management Systems on the web.

The judges also noted a number of factors that helped Joomla! secure the Award. "Most notably its good front-end for administrators and end-users, which gives users a simple and traditional company website straight out of the box. Once again, judges commented on the size and responsiveness of the community, which translates to potential problems being dealt with quickly."

Joomla! Project Manager Johan Janssens said adding this latest award to Joomla's steadily growing collection of prizes was recognition of the project as a whole.

"While I can't pretend to read judges minds, I'm sure Joomla's wealth of community and focus on creating the foundations of a next generation framework, demonstrated the true strengths of the project," he said.

"I'd also like to thank Packt for its continued support through its publications and awards. Packt understands open source spirit, that's for sure."

Joomla! is also in the final five for the Overall Award, to be announced on Friday November 2, so keep your fingers crossed.  

NEWSFLASH: Packt confirmed that Joomla! 1.5 (despite still being in Release Candidate) was basis for their decision.   Great news for anyone still sitting on the fence, wondering just how good the new generation framework is!