Please help me to understand and compare Content Management Systems (CMS), especially those specifically well suited for website developement. I am most familiar with PHP, and so would like to focus on PHP-based systems (open-source, free-type).

First, is this even the right or best forum for this question? Moderator: please feel free to advise and move this somewhere else if you think that would be better. ;)

I've been starting to learn about CMS's like Drupal, Joomla!, Mambo, XOOPS, and others (ModX; SilverStripe). I've been finding most of their official websites to be less helpful than I'd like - maybe I'm visiting the wrong sites - and hoped you good folks at WPW could help me.

I'd like to understand more about how these things work, how you use them, and especially how they compare to each other.

For example, I haven't been seeing as much as I'd like in terms of screen shots of what their interfaces look like - how do you interact with them (both from the developer and end-user point of view); what options do they give you; how do you choose those options. References to helpful articles, tutorials,and websites that explain them would be a good start. Even links to good meaty and general threads on this topic that have already taken place on WPW will help me. Searching through WPW, I've also found the sites: CMS Watch, OpensourceCMS, and CMS Matrix, which I will also explore - but I really want general advise as much as as I want details.

Do they all work basically the same way, or are there differences, e.g. are they driven by databases? Do they utilize style templating systems? etc., and how do the differences affect their suitability for projects?

In a general sense, what are the major benefits, and disadvantages, of working with CMS's compared to website developement without them?

I believe that a project that I am contemplating calls for using a CMS - I can give you more details about that as this discussion proceeds if you want - but i don't really even know what basis to use in choosing one over another.

I'd especially like to hear people's opinions about how they compare to each other. What are the particular strengths of the different CMS's, and their relative weaknesses? For example, are any particularly versatile for a designer to work with when styling and setting up the initial architecture of the sites? Are some more user-friendly than others for non-developers, not-designers to use in terms of set-up choices and daily interactions of adding and modifying content?

In a small nutshell, my project involves setting up many small, fairly basic, self-manageable (content), "semi-customizable" (styles) websites, for individuals, with a common theme and set of "uses" (e.g., slideshows, etc).

I have lot's of questions, but I think these are probably enough (more than enough?) to get this discussion started. Any explanations and opinions will be an education for me!

Thanks!