By teamplayer on

I am new to Drupal and am about to install Drupal on a WampServer installed on my computer. I am wondering what the advantages and disadvantages are to installing the Acquis Drupal distribution instead of the standard distribution available on Drupal.org.

Here's my situation:

  • I own a small business and handle all the chores involved in designing and maintaining my website.
  • Currently, I have a static website that I am planning on converting to a Drupal site.
  • I have intermediate Photoshop, HTML and CSS skills and beginning PHP skills.
  • My plans are to include a blog and in the future a shopping cart on my site.

I look forward to any suggestions on which distribution to get started with.

Thanks

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

vm’s picture

vm commented

acquia drupal is prepackaged with contrib modules. They also have a DAMP stack which is Drupal Apache MySQL and PHP

What you get from drupal.org is core only. Contrib modules are downloaded separately. Server environment would be set up separately.

teamplayer’s picture

teamplayer commented

Does this mean that I would not install Acquia Drupal when I already have WampServer on my computer? Or does the "Damp stack" install locally on my pc?

vm’s picture

vm commented

http://acquia.com/downloads = acquia's download page where you can see that there are multiple ways to download and use acquia drupal. with and without the AMP.

infotechnologist’s picture

infotechnologist commented

I honestly prefer the original install. That is just my opinion...The original I have never had issues with but on a few server installs I had quite a few problems when I tried the Acquia install..not to mention I am obsessed with keeping things clean..I don't want modules on the server I won't use a generally when I get Acquia there are many modules that I would never need in a standard install..and since there so easy to install manually I just don't see the point..UNLESS you have a subscription with the Acquia Drupal company. Then some of the tools that come packages with their version really helps them to monitor your site and give you the best possible service.

walloon’s picture

walloon commented

The Acquia installation and forum support they offer, free or premium, is really helpful when you're starting out. Generally, as you get more seasoned with the ins and outs of drupal, you'll probably want to use core or your favorite "installation profile." There's also Drupal Features, which is really changing the way people are approaching building sites b/c it groups together all the modules and settings you need for a given application you want to build: http://drupal.org/project/features Very cool, still rough at the edges, but something to check out.

Hope that helps

teamplayer’s picture

teamplayer commented

I assume that there is some agreement as to the handful of modules which experienced Drupal users agree are most useful across a wide variety of sites. Which modules might fall into that "essential" category. I have heard for example that the Devel module would be on that list

vm’s picture

vm commented

cck.module (and any of the field add on's required)
views.module
token.module
pathauto.module
imageapi.module
imagacache.module

are a start.

hershel’s picture

hershel commented

Devel is only required for someone writing code for Drupal--for general use, it's not required nor recommended.

For a shopping cart, check out http://ubercart.com/

teamplayer’s picture

teamplayer commented

Thanks for the help. I can already tell that one of the best things about Drupal is going to be the community that surrounds Drupal and this forum. You all rock! Thanks.

walloon’s picture

walloon commented

By the way, Lullabot has a great podcast on the Top 40 essential modules, just came out a couple weeks ago: http://www.lullabot.com/audiocast/lullabot-podcast-80-top-40-drupal-modu... Well worth the listen