--- /dev/null
+[[!meta title="Getting Started with scripts.mit.edu"]]
+The scripts.mit.edu automatic installers allow you to get popular
+software up-and-running quickly.
+
+You can easily try out a new wiki, blog, forum, photo gallery, or
+other piece of software by simply running two commands at an Athena
+prompt (you must use an Athena computer to run these commands; we
+recommend using a cluster workstation or
+[athena.dialup.mit.edu](http://athena.dialup.mit.edu/ssh.html)):
+
+athena% **add scripts**
+athena% **scripts-start**
+
+(If you are confused about how to run the above commands on Athena,
+e-mail scripts@mit.edu for assistance. You must have an
+[Athena account](http://web.mit.edu/olh/Register/) and understand
+the
+[MITnet rules of use](http://web.mit.edu/olh/Welcome/rules.html) in
+order to use the service.)
+
+The quick-start installer will then present a menu and ask you to
+select from the following popular software packages:
+
+#### [Wikis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki) and [Blogs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog):
+
+- [MediaWiki](http://www.mediawiki.org/)
+ ~[demo](http://www.wikipedia.org)~ – wiki software from the
+ Wikimedia Foundation that helps users to create and edit content on
+ the web. Mediawiki is especially suited for collaborative writing.
+
+- [WordPress](http://wordpress.org/)
+ ~[demo](http://wordpress.com/)~ – a blog publishing system.
+
+#### Photo Galleries:
+
+- [Gallery2](http://gallery.menalto.com/)
+ ~[demo](http://gallery.menalto.com/gallery/samples)~ – enables
+ simple management and publication of photographs and other digital
+ media. Gallery2 features automatic thumbnails, resizing, rotation,
+ and flipping. Albums can be organized hierarchically and
+ individually controlled by administrators or privileged users.
+
+#### [Forums](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forums):
+
+- [phpBB](http://www.phpbb.com/)
+ ~[demo](http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/)~ – a high powered, fully
+ scalable, and highly customizable bulletin board package. phpBB has
+ a user-friendly interface, a simple and straightforward
+ administration panel, and a helpful FAQ.
+
+#### [Content Management Systems](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system) (CMS’s):
+
+- [Joomla](http://joomla.org/) ~[demo](http://demo.joomla.org/)~
+ – a content-publishing system featuring page caching, web indexing,
+ RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs,
+ forums, polls, calendars, website searching, and language
+ internationalization.
+
+#### [Software Issue Trackers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issue_tracking_system):
+
+- [Trac](http://trac.edgewall.org/)
+ ~[demo](http://www.hosted-projects.com/trac/TracDemo/Demo)~ – an
+ integrated wiki, ticket tracker, and source code viewer for various
+ revision control systems (including
+ [Subversion](http://subversion.tigris.org/) and
+ [Git](http://git-scm.com/)).
+
+#### [Web Application Frameworks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application_framework):
+
+- [TurboGears](http://turbogears.org/) –
+ [Python](http://www.python.org/) based rapid webapp development
+ framework
+
+- [Django](http://www.djangoproject.com/) – another
+ [Python](http://www.python.org/) based rapid webapp development
+ framework
+
+- [Ruby on Rails](http://rubyonrails.org/) –
+ [Ruby](http://www.ruby-lang.org/) based rapi webapp development
+ framework
+
+#### Miscellaneous
+
+- [PHP iCalendar](http://phpicalendar.net/)
+ ~[demo](http://phpicalendar.net/phpicalendar/)~ – calendar software
+ that displays iCal files in a logical, clean manner with day, week,
+ month, and year navigation. phpiCal is available in 13 languages
+ and includes support for printing, searching and RSS news feeds.
+
+(If you would like us to create an automatic installer for a
+software package that is not currently on this list, you can let us
+know by e-mailing scripts@mit.edu. Alternatively, you can use the
+[web script service](/web) to immediately set up whatever software
+you want to have installed.)
+
+### After the Install
+
+You should add yourself to the
+[scripts-announce mailing list](https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/scripts-announce)
+if you would like to receive announcements of major service changes
+and outages. This list receives only a few messages per year.
+
+If you set up a site for your group using scripts.mit.edu and you
+would like to be able to use a URL of the form
+http://YOUR\_GROUP.mit.edu/
+please visit this page on
+[how to obtain a shorter URL](http://scripts.mit.edu/faq/14)
+
+### Technical Details
+
+For more information, see our list of
+[Frequently Asked Questions](../faq/).
+
+Each of these installers does the following:
+
+- signs you up for the [web script service](../web)
+- places the desired software into your web\_scripts directory
+- signs you up for the [MySQL service](http://sql.mit.edu) if
+ necessary (all of the installers except the one for PHP iCalendar
+ use MySQL)
+- signs you up for scripts.mit.edu [security updates](/faq/44)
+
+The installers place your MySQL account password in a .sql/my.cnf
+file in your Athena locker. You may use this password to manage
+your MySQL account at the
+[sql.mit.edu web interface](http://sql.mit.edu).
+
+
+