Recently deployed on drupal.org is the new Distribution Packaging system for Drupal. What this means is Drupal can now be downloaded as an “Out of the Box” solution which will make it easier and more user friendly to have a website in Drupal.
The way it works is that instead of downloading the Drupal Core and a Drupal Theme separately, installing it all, configuring your theme and installing and enabling contribution modules that you need for your website, you can now download what’s called a “Distribution Profile”. This installation profile is packaged up into one easy downloadable file. So all you need to do is download the distribution, unpack it into the root directory of your site, visit install.php, follow the steps and you’re done. The package will install, enable and configure any modules it needs so when it’s done your site is ready to go!
This should greatly decrease the time and hassle of getting a new Drupal site up and running. You will no longer need to waste time downloading and setting everything up as it’s all taken care of for you, just search for the Distribution Profile you want and away you go.
As this has only just been deployed on drupal.org, there are not many profiles available yet, but it shouldn’t take long for this to take off and be the way most users download and install Drupal.
If you are interested in more information about Distribution Profiles, how to create your own or to search through them, I have added some links below.
More information about Distribution Packages
http://drupal.org/node/647374
http://groups.drupal.org/distributions
Searching and Downloading Distribution Packages
http://drupal.org/project/installation+profiles
Write an Installation Profile for the Drupal installer
http://drupal.org/node/67921
Building your own Package
http://drupal.org/node/642116
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