Don't be surprised if the next version of Drupal runs slower than what you're used to, that's by design. According to Drupal project founder Dries Buytaert, Drupal 7 will sacarifice a bit of speed in order to build on scalability.
"Unfortunately, Drupal 7 will be a little slower than Drupal 6, but it will be much more scalable," said Dries Buytaert.
While it will run slower out of the box, the open source CMS will be able to power bigger sites, Buytaert added. Version 7 will feature 70 modules, including an image API, and significantly more code. But despite all that's being added, Drupal 7 won't spend years in development.
"First of all, it's very important that we get it out as soon as possible," Buytaert said when stressing the importance of maintaining momentum.
Drupal, which began life without a "grand vision," has become a prominent fixture in website design and is used by a number of big name sites, including NASA, Ubuntu, Popular Science, WhiteHourse.gov, and right here at MaximumPC.com, among others.