[ Thanks to jnaze for this link. ]
“One of the most obvious benefits of free and open
source software is the ability to download world-class software and
implement it gratis on your system. But, sometimes, there is a big
difference between theory and action. I’m not talking about
installing desktop applications like“Firefox, OpenOffice.org, or GIMP. Most of the Linux
distributions have by now made this process newbie-simple, and
Windows and Mac systems have never had a problem with installation.
Rather, I am talking about complex server systems, like Ruby on
Rails, Tomcat, Joomla!, or Drupal. Regardless of platform, getting
one of these instances running can range from a bit tricky to
downright hair-pulling.“Naturally, if you’re using a good Web hosting service, it’s not
too hard to sign up for, say, a Drupal- or Joomla!-based site and,
with a little configuration, have your site up and running in a few
hours. But, what if you need an instance in order to play around
or, more seriously, learn about the guts of such a system without
(a) messing up your machine’s base settings and (b) paying for
hosting fees.”