title: Is Panels necessary in Drupal 7?
body: <p>A bit of explanation - I'm a Drupal 6 developer who has never used Panels, but was looking at it for a new site that I was going to initially build in D6, but am now going to build in D7 since the modules I need all seem to be available.</p>
  
  <p>This will be my first D7 site.</p>
  
  <p>For this site I was going to use Panels in D6 for the following reasons:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>The majority of the pages in the site will have a sidebar, but the composition of that sidebar will vary, and the 'content area' may be subdivided in up to 3 divisions, either in 1+1+1 or 2+1, including back and forth from one to the other in the same page (ie 2+1 on top of 1+1+1).</li>
  <li>The homepage will be completely different and have its own layout.</li>
  <li>Some pages, such as the forum, will be "full-width" and will have no sidebar whatsoever.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>It seemed like Panels could accomplish all of these (if not, that would be good to know :-). </p>
  
  <p>In Drupal 7, is Panels still a good bet for this, or is there a better way? It seems beyond what my understanding of simple blocks and regions can do, but I may be wrong...</p>