This week the SilverStripe team released version 2.3.0 of its open source content management system, which packs in literally hundreds of bug fixes and dozens of enhancements. While I wouldn't consider anything in the latest release to be particularly groundbreaking, the development team is doing a commendable job of adding onto an already solid foundation.Back in October 2008, SilverStripe CMS took home the Most Promising Open Source Content Management System award from Packt Publishing's 2008 Open Source CMS Awards. The award raised the project's profile and helped garner it some well-deserved attention.

I have mixed feelings about the word "promising" when it comes to software. Sure, it may mean that good things are on the way, but it also means that they aren't quite here just yet. Fortunately the latter doesn't seem to apply to SilverStripe. Over the past couple of years, SilverStripe has emerged as a mature, robust content management system.

SilverStripe offers two main software packages -- the content management system, as well as Sapphire, a Web site development framework. The company recently split its Web presence into two sites -- Silverstripe.com focuses on the services side (custom development, integration) and Silverstripe.org focuses on the software side.

Like the best content management systems, the SilverStripe CMS does a good job of striking a balance between real-world usability for content creators and editors, and impressive back-end technology for site developers. To get a flavor for what SilverStripe is all about, I'd recommend checking out the video that runs through the basics of managing content, and then giving the live demo a try.