Wow, I learnt alot in this post... different perspectives and points of view. And I also learnt contributing honestly has a doubled edged sword... on this forum... this is how you get your moderator status removed...  I used to be able to moderate, but today - it appears that I must be untrustworthy so, so much so that I'm not able to assist at moderating any more, I think there is a bit of paranoid behaviour going on here...  

My blogs have been removed from here, my posts deleted without being told, now, moderator status removed..... what's next...  accidently deleting my user name.. so all my efforts will have been eroded..  .. or am I being paranoid...  

Good grief... and you wonder why people go to other forums... I've supported this project since 2002, an avid supporter and contributor, but to dare say anything isn't to your liking or to your advantage gets you completely alienated.   It doesn't stop me from appreciating how good DNN does, but it really does make me wonder about how 'open' it really is in fostering a community in general.

Fortunately I love the DNN project in other aspects, so will continue to help where I can in other areas... 

Nina Meiers
My Site  -  My Blogs  - Goodies

The DNN project team are doing a fantastic job with DNN, although some people in these forums do forget that these guys are doing this for FREE !!!! and have other regular jobs. Keep up the good work guys and for the moaners....Get involved or quit whining.

No one said the DNN project team wasn't doing a fantastic job, and I don't think anyone in this thread is moaning or whining.  
There are however several people in this thread expressing opinions based on being very involved with DNN for years. 

Maybe your post was misplaced, but calling anyone a "moaner" will not not advance an otherwise civil discussion.

>what indicate maturity?

if we are talking about a software solution then first and foremost stability - the package does not crash the system

secondly - does the package deliver what is promised - in DNN case yes and probably also in Joomla's case

thirdly - is it accepted in the user world. - again in both cases yes.

so stability is the one to argue on - some would say that DNN is not stable especially the latter versions - I cannot comment on Joomla as I do not use it on a regular basis. In the case of DNN I would argue that the only stable version of DNN at the moment is V2.

However one could argue that an open source project by definition will never be totally stable - so the comparsion should then look at how fast are bugs fixed in the relevnt packages. We assume due to the open source concept that there will always be bugs - old ones should hopefully be fixed fast while new ones will decrease in number - again as I don't use Joomla enought I cannot say which is better under this concept.

on point two  Ithink both would be fairly equal

on point three one needs to look at the available addons ( modules) free or otherwise - simply counting the modules avialable to each is not enought one needs to actually look at the complexity of the tasks in each module. In my opinion DNN wins on this. Simply looking at the download figures is not relevent - I tend as others do to download packages and demo's to try out but may never actually bring them into use. MOdule development especially commercial ones does actually denote the level of uptake of the package by the public.