The Shining Source

Damn! That sounds a lot easier than the standard Linux install procedure!!

I actually managed to get Mepis Linux installed relatively easily. The hardest part was cleaning enough space off of my tiny 15gig hard drive.

Not that I condone the use of Linux in any way, shape size or form.

It has advantages as an apache server, and runs considerably faster as a file server or processing unit(for rendering farms and the like) - but these are niche operations.  The only major benefit it has is cost to the user.

I spent 3 years selling pc's with windows on them when I left school and over that time installed only about 5 pcs set up with a linux gui for a first time computer buyer - at the insistence of their geek friend.
Surprisingly(ONCE installed and ready to use) the xwindows interfaces produced what seemed like faster learning newbies compared to ms windows.

Windows is still better for me personally, but I wish it wasn't so much of a one horse race - the more competition there is the better the products will become.  With this in mind I like the thought of linux - though I wouldn't use any current build in their present state for my desktop.

I'm sure I'll enjoy using it as an Apache server once I get the thing to compile php5. I guess using Windows for all these years has made me "lame", but I really don't enjoy having to compile software before using it.

BOOM.

Finally got it working. Apache 1.3, PHP4 & MySQL4 compiler and purring like kittens. LIKE KITTENS.

Nice man! So what will you host with it?

I'm just going to be using it as a test server, same as my Windows one. Only difference is my Linux server uses the same system as this place, so I know what I do will be compatible. I'll mostly be using it to develop TSS version 4.0. Maybe version 5.0.

How many versions of TSS have there been? I remember Acmefiles, shining-online.co.uk and then this place. Am I missing any?

Blast from the past.

Yeah there was cjb.net in the beginning.

The first TSS was created on Acmefiles.com. Before that we had a Shiny Sword homepage on some free provider with banners .

cjb.net was just a link-through to the normal provider. I personally see the acmefiles site as the first Shining Source site. All sites before were merely about the Shiny Sword afaik...

Then version 4.0 it is =)

My intention is to use phpBB as the core of the new site, and mod it as required. I'll post a complete list of features later tonight.

I might have a shrine for screens of the old TSS websites. Any objections?

Hell no .

One thing though: phpBB is known for its security bugs and mod-killing updates. Perhaps it might be smarter to find a different more sturdy open BB system?

Just suggesting .

Yeah, it can be a little troublesome at times. To be honest though, much much bigger forums use phpBB and seem to run trouble free.

Any suggestions? I'm not sure I want to shell out for Invisionboard, hence why I've stuck with phpBB. I've looked at a few CMS thingies, but they all seem a little complex. I'll keep my eyes open.

At the moment, I'm looking at:
Drupal
Joomla!
Mambo
postNuke

So many choices.

True but we got hacked like ... twice? It'd be a bit of a shame if someone could hack the whole site that way?

Indeed, and we got shut down my my hosts for a month because we were running phpBB. That sucked.