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Filed under: Blogging, Productivity, Open Source, Social Software

BitNami makes installing popular open source packages easy as pie

BitNami

One of the main issues with open source software that people have (and a reason they don't use it) is that it's hard to install and configure. There is a new project called BitNami that is trying to take the sting out of the open source adoption process. They bundle many popular Open Source software packages into a 1-click setup file. Theoretically, all a user has to do it download the package of their choice and copy it on to their system or web host.

There are some very hard-hitting packages to chose from including WordPress blogging software, phpBB bulletin board software, Drupal CMS, and MediaWiki, among others.

To check out their packages. Head over to BitNami.org and download the application you are interested in. You will probably have to FTP the packages up to your web host. More detailed instructions can be found on BitNami.org.

The BitNami project is looking to add new packages to their site and are taking suggestions. One app on their list that excites us in particular is SugarCRM, an immensely popular Customer Relations Management application.

We say "way to go!" to the BitNami project and hope this radical step will broaden the user base and drive more people to utilize these fantastic tools.

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Social Software, Unix

ForumMatrix - Compare forum software side-by-side

ForumMatrixForumMatrix is a handy comparison matrix to check if you are thinking about running a public forum and aren't sure what forum software to use, or if you already do run a forum and want to switch to a different package. You can select different packages from their list and compare the details (license, features, cost, etc.) side-by-side in a easy to follow table.

If you aren't sure where to start ForumMatrix has a handy Choice Wizard that will ask you a few specific questions about what features you may be looking for. I can see this as especially helpful for people new to running a forum. It filters results down to flat versus threaded, license type/cost, storage type (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL, etc.), attachments, and more. If you still aren't sure and need advice from other users, you can also drop by their own forums and consult others on their own opinions.

Filed under: Web services, Open Source

Vanilla 1.0: Next-gen open source forum released

Vanilla 1.0Vanilla advertises itself as "an open-source, standards compliant, multi-lingual, fully extensible discussion forum for the web," and on Saturday it saw its 1.0 release.  Vanilla will run on any web server equipped with PHP 4.1+ and MySQL 3.23+ and its Ajaxy bits work equally well in any major browser. To see Vanilla in action, head over to the official forums, or head straight to the download site for the less than 700kb package.

In related news, a couple weeks ago venerable web forum app phpBB reached the 3.0 beta 1 milestone. phpBB 3 features a whole boatload of changes and new features that have been long in coming. There's too many, in fact, for me to even list the highlights here.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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