which version of drupal?
i have actually been doing a fair bit of work with drupal along with other cms, wanted to get a feel for them before i started on a few projects. now that i've selected drupal and started, i am finding a made the wrong decision, at least in selecting version 6.
the front page of drupal clearly steers you toward version 6 and has done so for months. but when it comes to anything beyond a basic site, the modules are just not ported or stable. many reviews talk about the many modules available, but those are a collection over 4 version. and projects that have depreciated previous existing modules or core are not being upgraded to version 6. in looking around for solutions and answers myself it appears that there is a lot of work being done on version 7 while 6 is still such a 'lite' release compared to 5.
so on to my questions before this looks just like a random rant.
1. are the conclussions outlined above wrong?
2. what version would long timers recommend starting a fairly complex site with?
3. how much longer will version 5 be supported?
4. what has the drupal lifecycle been like?
committing to develop (content and contributions) under an opensource cms is a great opportunity. but, i am concerned that with success the opensource side will lose way to the commercial opportunities that come up in time.