After reading You may want to avoid hacking your open-source CMS today I was saddened, not because Drupal fell short (it didn't), not because Open Source usage is flawed (it isn't), but because it reminds me of situations I have endured in the past from the receiving end unfortunately.

Summarizing the story, The Onion forked (as in adapted to their own wishes) Drupal 4.7 apparently not realizing the costs of maintaining/syncing their own product. Wrong expectations make up a big part of a disappointment. Good expectations are part of doing your homework.

As a system engineer, I have a hard time understanding how a reputable organization can make a decision to modify existing software without thinking of the implications. If you set up infrastructure for yourself or others, the maintenance cost is an important criteria in making a (any) decision.

I often see a difference in attitudes between typical developers and system engineers, the former focused on the end-product and requirements (and likely a deadline), the latter focused on the end-solution and maintenance. A programmer's job has usually stopped when the system engineer's work has to start.

Sometimes it is frustrating that the long-term effects are overlooked and a piece of software is forced into production without any regard of maintenance (security, support or development) costs.

So a valuable lesson is in this story, if you introduce something new, make sure you have a good grip on what the costs are, also after it is successfully launched. In economics that's the difference between extraordinary costs and recurring costs. Don't leave that up to the marketeer, salesman or developer, maybe involve your system engineer next time ;-)

It is up to The Onion to see if they're better off with Django than Drupal, I guess it depends on how much development is part of their core-business. At least I hope they have thought about the development and maintenance costs this time around. And according to this Reddit thread they know what they are doing and where they are going :-)