BitNami adds Ubuntu to the Stacks

Want to run WordPress, Drupal, or whip up a DJango instance on Ubuntu without all the hassle of configuring an operating system and support stack? Now you can. BitNami has added the most recent release of Ubuntu to its virtual appliance stacks.

BitNami supplies software stacks of popular free software applications and infrastructure. More than 25 applications are available as BitNami stacks, including WordPress, MediaWiki, SugarCRM, Moodle, Trac, and Liferay. The company also bundles up "infrastructure" stacks for development on Django, Ruby on Rails and (of course) the ubiquitous LAMP stack. Each stack includes all the basic software needed for the application or infrastructure.

The addition of Ubuntu 9.10 means that users can now run the stacks on Ubuntu or openSUSE 11.1 VMware and VirtualBox virtual machines, or choose native installers to add the stacks to most Linux distros, Windows, Mac OS X, and (in some cases) Solaris. BitNami also provides "cloud" images that run on Amazon EC2 or GoGrid.

The virtual machines come with software pre-installed and the application will start automatically when the virtual machine boots up. Full instructions for working with the BitNami VMs are available on the BitNami site.

BitNami stacks are especially useful for developers and for testing applications before production deployments. Instead of having to have a test server and configuring all of the dependencies for an application, simply download a virtual image or BitNami installer and have a test system up and running in less than 10 minutes.