One of the best features of BitNami Stacks is that they are easy to install. This allows users to quickly and easily deploy their favorite open source software regardless of the operating system they are running. BitNami Modules take simplicity a step further by enabling you to easily plug-in additional applications that will automatically run on top of the BitNami platform.

With BitNami Stacks, you get everything that you need to run for each application you install – each stack is a complete, independent runtime. In many cases, a BitNami Stack may be just what you need. In others, you may want to run all of your applications on top of the same stack. This may be because you want to centralize the administration tasks, or maybe you don’t want to run multiple Apache or MySQL instances in the same server. This is where BitNami Modules come in. They enable you to integrate and run several applications on top of one open source stack / runtime. The BitNami system allows you to share basic user and system data across applications, as well as easily see which applications and versions are installed and running on your system. This integration will be expanded significantly in later versions.

Let’s take a look at what you can do with BitNami Modules.

Imagine you’re someone without much experience in the world of programming and system administration and you’d like to have your own wiki. [Of course, the below also applies to those with the know-how, who just don’t want to bother with installing everything manually.] To get started:

Go to www.bitnami.org and take a look to all the BitNami Stacks and BitNami Modules.

You can choose:

• a) A BitNami Stack for each application you want to use.
•  
• b) The BitNami Platform (BitNami LAMPStack if you are using Linux, or MAMPStack, WAMPStack or SAMPstack if you are using Mac, Windows or Solaris) and the set of BitNami Modules of your choice. Each Module includes a ready-to-plug application that will automatically be installed and configured to run on top of your BitNami Platform installation. You can add several BitNami Modules to one BitNami Platform installation, so all of the resources are shared between the applications.

You want a wiki, but..which one will work best for you? The best way to find out is to give them a try. BitNami Modules are as easy to uninstall as they are to install. Just like BitNami Stacks, they are completely independent. Although they run on top of the same platform, each module is completely separate from the others. Modules can be installed or uninstalled without fear of interfering with the other modules that you have running.

Suppose that you want to deploy BitNami software in your company. You may also need a Content Management System, a Forum, a news system. You tried BitNami on Windows but the server runs Linux. No problem! You can go to BitNami and get all of the same applications for a different platform. The installation process and software versions will be the same across any BitNami-supported operating systems.

The best way to understand how BitNami Modules work is to give them a try. Currently, BitNami Modules are only available for PHP applications. Download your BitNami LAMPStack, MAMPStack, WAMPStack or SAMPStack. Try the different modules available on BitNami. And remember, uninstalling them is just as easy as installing, so if you don’t like one of the applications, you can just remove it.

We’d really like to get your feedback on this new addition to BitNami. What do you think of BitNami Modules? Do you prefer the the modular architecture, or the self-contained stacks? Please leave your comments in our forum and help us improve BitNami.