Is Community Edition right for me?

[dannz]

We've started using Deki Express, but want to be able to customise a bit more than seems possible with that - and wondering if community edition might be better. We want to be able to add a forum, and ideally have own skin and layout (with tabs at top to go to forum, quick links etc.).

It's for a non-profit social enterprise org - we are using web hosting, but we don't yet have our own VPS server as seems to be needed, - and which would only need if using community edition. So it would be starting from scratch with limited tech experience (ok at managing a website, and used Ubuntu desktop, but not configured servers etc.). VM ware install seems a good way to go, but again, I have no idea on step by step way to install and configure everything needed before installing Deki. Also want Linux version which will be easy to install other packages later - perhaps Joomla (possibly Ubuntu might be right?). Which would be the simplest and easiest way to get going from scratch? Then once have it installed, what does it take to get Deki community edition up and running, online and usable?

I've no idea if it's going to be beyond our tech skills (basic knowledge of Dreamweaver, and simple programming in Python, Actionscript). Ideally it would be great if there were some 'sandbox' version of community edition could try out (e.g. 8 hours as per Invision IP.Board demo). We have only pennies and can't afford to spend days getting it up and running only to find it isn't right for us, and have no money for a support package or 'on demand'. If possible be great if someone would volunteer to do the install for us, otherwise any guidance, tips and advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

[mathieuo]

Hi Dannz,
The Deki VMware images are already set up with Deki ready to go, all you need is a VMware player to launch them.

That seems the best solution if you don't feel like installing and configuring the server manually. Also, these VMs are running under Linux Debian which should provide the flexibility you need.

Hope that helps.

[dannz]

Thanks - I've got the VMware version going - (Demo video was helpful too). What I can't find is how to get into filesystem to customise CSS etc. I've mapped a hard disk in VMware - but can't get into it (using Win XP - it says can't open, and asks me if I want to format the drive!) I've tried with IP address, but no joy either. Perhaps I'm not putting in the /Dekixxxx/ bit right for the version I downloaded?

[crb]

You want to use Samba.