---
url: 'https://dri.es/state-of-drupal-presentation-september-2022'
title: 'State of Drupal presentation (September 2022)'
author:
  name: 'Dries Buytaert'
  url: 'https://dri.es/about'
date: '2022-09-28T14:14:31-04:00'
license: 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/'
type: blog
summary: 'DrupalCon Europe 2022 DriesNote presentation'
tags:
  - Drupal
  - DrupalCon
  - 'Open Web'
  - 'My site'
  - POSSE
  - 'State of Drupal'
  - Prague
image: drupalcon-prague-2022/driesnote
published: true
id: 5361
---

# State of Drupal presentation (September 2022)

Last week, over 1,200 Drupalists gathered in Prague for DrupalCon Europe. It was great to see everyone together in person.

In good tradition, I delivered [my State of Drupal keynote](/tag/state-of-drupal). You can [watch the video of my keynote](https://youtu.be/Hmit4ET-l3Q) or [download my slides](https://dri.es/files/state-of-drupal-september-2022.pdf) (380 MB).

[video Hmit4ET-l3Q]

<div class="large">
  [image drupalcon-prague-2022/protect-the-open-web resize=false]
</div>

### Why the Open Web should win

Today the web is ingrained in every aspect of our daily lives. We use it for work, to socialize, to pay our bills, get healthcare, and gain access to information.

As more transactions, collaborations and interactions are taking place online, there is now a greater responsibility to ensure that the web is inclusive of every person, and accounts for everyone's safety.

When people are excluded from being able to access online experiences, they are also excluded from rewarding careers, independent lifestyles, and the social interactions and friendships that bring people together.

For those reasons, we need to do everything we can to protect and grow the [Open Web](https://dri.es/tag/open-web).

<div class="large">
  [image drupalcon-prague-2022/caring-drupal-caring-open-web resize=false]
</div>

### Caring about Drupal is caring about the Open Web

In my keynote, I made the point that [Drupal](https://www.drupal.org/) is an important player in the preservation and growth of the Open Web.

I kicked off my keynote talking about some of my personal reasons for using Drupal, most of which have to do with the future of the [Open Web](https://dri.es/tag/open-web).

After all these years, I continue to upload [my photos](https://dri.es/photos) to my website, despite there being plenty of simpler alternatives (e.g. Facebook or Instagram). I do this for a number of reasons.

First, [my photos](https://dri.es/photos) are precious to me, and I don't want them to get lost. I look at news stories about MySpace and Facebook losing users' content. I like that [I'm in control of my own data](https://dri.es/taking-control-of-my-data-and-social-media), including my backups.

Second, I don't like how proprietary platforms limit my creative freedom. Pages and templates within a closed platform tend to look the same. It's hard to stand out, or even just express yourself the way you want to. With Drupal, I'm unrestricted in how I share my photos.

Third, I don't like how these platforms treat my friends and family. Many of them use invasive tracking. For that reason, I don't use trackers or ads on my website. My site aspires to the privacy of a printed book.

All of these are reasons why I want both Drupal and the Open Web to win. We don't want to live in a world where proprietary platforms reign supreme. We need more "Good Software". Software that is open, flexible, secure, accessible, and pro-privacy.

Making security, privacy, accessibility, multilingual capabilities, usability, and ease of maintenance top priorities is hard work work, but it's worth it. Caring about Drupal is the same as caring about the Open Web.

### Drupal's growth and influence

[image drupalcon-prague-2022/ambitious-site-builders]

The good news is that Drupal has grown into a powerful platform for [ambitious site builders](https://dri.es/drupal-is-for-ambitious-site-builders). Drupal empowers millions of ambitious site builders to create Open Web experiences.

However, we have to get better at promoting what we're good at to ensure more people understand how powerful and influential Drupal is. That influence becomes really clear when you look at [Drupal's end users](https://youtu.be/9avEUpdvI1Q).

<div class="large">
  [video 9avEUpdvI1Q]
</div>

### Making Drupal's high bar easier to achieve

Because of Drupal's impact on the digital landscape, we keep a high bar with regards to stability, reliability, accessibility, security, backwards compatibility, and more. With great impact comes great responsibility.

This high bar can make contribution difficult and slow, and is sometimes what keeps people from contributing back more to Drupal.

Unfortunately, we can't lower the bar. However, we can make it easier to achieve our high bar. That's why we are moving from Drupal's homegrown collaboration tools to [GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/).

GitLab streamlines and automates various steps of the contribution process. Check out the [Drupal.org GitLab video](https://youtu.be/e6BvC-JJyHM) from the [Drupal Association](https://www.drupal.org/association) for an update.

[video e6BvC-JJyHM]

### Welcoming more people to Drupal 10

Another way to accelerate innovation is to grow our capacity and attract more people to Drupal.

The best way to attract new people to our community is by making [easy-to-use software that solves real world problems](https://dri.es/ockhams-razor-principle-of-content-management-systems).

Since [my previous DrupalCon keynote](https://dri.es/state-of-drupal-presentation-april-2022), I'm happy to report that we've made a lot of progress on our key initiatives. A few key highlights:

- Olivero became stable/default
- CKEditor5 became stable/default
- We're almost PHP 8.2 ready
- We upgraded to Symfony 6
- And [we made Drupal Core smaller](https://dri.es/a-plan-for-drupal-11)

Each of these initiatives is significant because they make Drupal and the Open Web more approachable.

In addition, the [Project Browser initiative](https://youtu.be/RnSgNo_tYxI) and [Automatic Updates initiative](https://youtu.be/4DcrBlq6la0) saw tremendous progress. Videos below.

[video RnSgNo_tYxI]

[video 4DcrBlq6la0]

To learn more about Drupal's strategic initiatives, you can watch the [Drupal Core Initiative Leads keynote](https://youtu.be/13hyoDAFP9E). Highly recommended for those that want to contribute.

### Upgrading to Drupal 10

Drupal 10 is scheduled to be released in mid-December. And after the Drupal 10 release, users will have 11 months to upgrade from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10. Drupal 10 will require PHP 8.1, something to plan for as well.

[image drupalcon-prague-2022/drupal-10-timeline]

Luckily, the upgrade path has never been easier. In the video below, we compare the upgrade path from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 to the upgrade from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10. As you can see, the Drupal 9 to 10 upgrade is much more automated. It will be the easiest yet!

[video 0NNWnMApwfo]

The update to Drupal 10 is required because some of Drupal 9's third-party dependencies will reach end-of-life. If you don't upgrade within 11 months, you will be running a site with unmaintained third-party dependencies.

[image drupalcon-prague-2022/drupal-10-upgrade-easiest-yet]

[image drupalcon-prague-2022/drupal-getting-easier]

### Thank you

I hope we can all find ways to care about building the web we want to see for the future. Making Drupal better means making the [Open Web](https://dri.es/tag/open-web) better.

I'd like to thank everyone that was involved in making DrupalCon Prague, Drupal 10, and the key initiatives described above a resounding success.

Last but not least, I'd like to encourage even more people to [get involved](https://www.drupal.org/community). It might not always be easy, but it's well worth it.
