Express Yourself. Blog Yourself.

What about security, you ask? Don’t ask. Visit the pMachine web site to see for yourself. Now, what do you need to make EE go like blazes on your Mac? Not much. Your Mac with OSX already comes with Apache, the most popular web page server on the planet. It also comes with PHP (that scripting language that powers more web sites than any other) built in and ready to be turned on. All you’ll need is the database application MySQL.

Click Here to get MySQL. Did I mention that it’s free? MySQL installs on OS X just like any other application.

What do I like most about EE? Graceful, elegant, simple power. The flexibility built in to the Template system is remarkable. Anything you design and layout in HTML (or XHTML) runs fine as Templates in EE. Create web pages as you’ve always created them.

Then, embed simple strings of text into your HTML to make EE paginate, list Categories, create links to other content, display archives and category archives, and much more. Comments on your web pages? Easy. Feedback links? Printer Friendly links? Email an article to a friend? Easy. Easy. Easy.

OK, what’s all this sophistication cost? Is pMachine a real company with real support? What do I get for my money? Can I try it before I buy it? Will it run on Windows (yuk)? How about Linux?

“What’ll I write about,” you ask.

Write about how wonderful your Mac is. Write about the fact that you don’t get viruses and worms and plagues, and lions and tigers and bears, oh my, on your Mac.

Whatever.

EE has a special “try out” version for just $10.00. They’ll install it and let you run it on a remote server for $10.00. That’s a good deal and worth the effort. Or, you can just skip that part and purchase right away.

Non-commercial users will pay $149.00, a commercial license is just $50 more. Secure hosting is also available at pMachine Hosting at reasonable rates.

Support for EE is rapid, via email. And there’s one of the best online Forums available so you can search for design tips and get questions answered (they’re “newbie” friendly).

Is EE ready for prime time? In a word, yes. If you’re a business web site and content management has become painful and complex, take a close look at EE. It’s bridged the gap between personal publishing systems and Content Management Systems with a feature set that’s competitive, a price that’s affordable (remarkbly so, considering what you get), and an elegance you won’t find even among desktop CMS applications.

EE. Expression Engine. Content Management that’s people friendly.

Off Topic Note: Help support Mac360 and save a few dollars on Mac software at our local Amazon store. Click Here to save almost $10 on the new version of Photoshop Elements, and almost $20 on the latest version of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, available now from the Mac360 Store (it’s really Amazon). Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage and more-- barely $50 more than Apple’s iWork ‘08. Save money and support Mac360 at the same time.