What do you need to start?
To be able to install and run Joomla, you'll need hosting space and a few tools. Here's a full shopping list.
Hosting space
First of all, you'll need hosting space—a place on a web server where you can set up your site, making it accessible for anyone with Internet access. Your hosting account should support the PHP scripting language (as Joomla is written in PHP), it should support the type of database that Joomla uses, called MySQL, and it has to run the Apache server software. Specifically, the following are the system requirements for Joomla 3.x:
- PHP 5.3.10 or higher: PHP is the scripting language that Joomla is written in. PHP 5.4 is recommended.
- MySQL 5.1 or higher: The MySQL database is where Joomla stores its data (the contents of your site). The MySQL database should support the InnoDB storage engine (which is a technique to store and manage information in a database).
- Apache 2.x or higher: Apache is the web server software that processes...