I've got an existing website with tons of content that I'd like to add new capabilities to.  But, I'm not sure if K2's paradigm is that it needs to own all content.  I've read that jSeblod's CCK takes the stance that you can continue using your existing articles as is, without making any trade off choices.Can someone provide a technical (not marketing) description of what assumptions K2 makes in terms of needing to own content?  Once added, is a website engineer limited to what extensions can be added?In other words: I'm looking for full disclosure: how am I limited once I've decided to use K2?  It may be worth the trade offs, but I want to know what the trade offs are.

I'm not sure that limited is the right choice of words in this case. Very technically speaking, you would not be able to use any modules or components that depend on content being pulled form the Joomla com_content component. The reason I say that limited is not the right choice of words is because many of the modules you would not be able to use can be replicated with the K2 Content Module. You will also see that there are more developers that are offering K2 support for their modules like RocketTheme with RokStories and RokTabs.

The same goes for components. While there will be some that rely on com_content to work, the same functions can generally be achieved within K2. Actually, there are even many components that do not rely on com_content that can also be replaced with K2 with a combination of extra fields and custom subtemplates.

While it is entirely possible that there is a module or component that you would need that does not currently have an equivalent in K2, it would be unlikely. We switch to developing all new sites with K2 and we have yet to come across a content need that we could not fill with K2. Feel free to post specific needs that you think might be an issue, I can give you some ideas on how that would work in K2.

Thanks for the quick reply. So, the issue I'm first concerned with is can I add K2 to an existing site and add new articles as K2 articles, leaving existing articles as is? Perhaps I don't quite yet understand the K2 paradigm. Does it do away with the Article Manager? We have used extensions that allow us to pull content from the Article Manager into module positions; so, from what you're saying, these wouldn't work anymore.

Again, please do understand my request: I just want to understand what work is ahead of me in taking an existing website and adapting it for use with K2. About 1/2 of our income is from maintaining existing websites... and those owners are not likely to want a redesign project. So, for existing websites, K2 might not be a good choice... is that your understanding if one wishes to take an incremental approach to using K2?

The other question is: for the future with Joomla 1.6... since K2 is incompatible with Joomla's Article Manager (com_content), this seems to be a scary thing that makes me worry about future compatibility. Again, I want to make sure that we convey this clearly to our customers. I need them to know that if they choose K2 for their websites (for very good reasons), that they are also choosing a certain amount of incompatibility with Joomla. Again, this isn't a judgement (good/bad) thing... it's about appropriate disclosure to our clients regarding the compatibility of their website with the Joomla standard.