Articles

Blog Software

There are so many available on the open Source Market that it is hard to find the right one...

I just want to make some recommendations in case you just start looking around and want to compare blog software.

WordPress

Currently my all-time favorite because literally to install in 5-minutes, as promised in the documentation. Ok, let's be realistic: all-in-all from download, reading the instructions, uploading, set-up ... you need an hour or so.
It's a PHP/MySQL based software with which you have great chances that it runs on most Windows AND Linux Shared Hosting Plans.
After installing it you get to the customization point which is fairly easy. Templates exist in hundreds on the market and many are free.
WordPress

i'd like to introduce some other products that come from the .NET side and which might fit perfectly into companies infrastructure where .NET and Windows-based servers exist.
Following a .NET based blog with a quite active developer team which is always a very good sign.

ASP.NET blog engines

blogengine.NET
A major reason why I especially liked this blog is that is can run without database because it includes a provider for XML access. So it runs out of the box without setting up the SQL Server database. This seems interesting for deployment scenarios in shared hosting environments.

The other interesting blogs are:

• subText
• dasBlog
• CommunityServer (CS)
  CS has specific license terms that you must read! Here's an excerpt, dated 2007-Nov-10: "Commercial Usage The Express Edition may be used by commercial organizations for internal use (cannot be used for public facing communities) and is limited to the feature set described. Individuals and not-for-profits may use the Express Edition for public facing communities."

Conclusion

These products do not cover everything on the market and there are lots more that probably fit your needs - however this is an overview.
Check with your hosting company if the chosen blog software will run on their system before you spend too much time.

Cheers, Frank