This is good feedback.
The large number of steps came about because we tried to be very detailed in the instructions. The intent is to make it easier.
Yes, it's a lot of steps to do manually. The solution is to use binary packages and scripts that take care of installation.
I don't know what the state of RPMs and DEBs for OpenACS are. I know there are good AOLserver Debian packages out there, and I remember Gentoo ebuilds too. I think I remember someone mentioning having created OpenACS RPMs as well.
So perhaps we could write a script that would download the binary packages, install them, and setup the configuration according to some answers. Debian packages have this capability built-in, but RPMs don't. Don't know about ebuilds.
Then someone could put together a Windows installer, but that would require making OpenACS PostgreSQL 8-ready, since it's a lot harder to install PostgreSQL for cygwin.
Luis, would you like to take on the lead on making this happen?
-Roberto
P.S.: Luis, just a suggestion, it's a good idea to put some paragraphs in what you're writing to aid readability 😊
