What is it?

MoWeS Portable uses the apache/mysql/php stack and you can install to any media device including removable hard disks, USB keys, flash drives or memory sticks.  This gives you a fully functional webserver but the real exciting part is that there is also a heap of application software prepackaged for you to download including Moodle, Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, MediaWiki, OS Commerce, SugarCRM, Xoops and a raft of other applications.

Benefits

Whenever you are learning a new computer system it is always great if you can have a copy of it with admin rights and the ability to play away and not worry about stuffing anything up or affecting other users.  This is where MoWeS is great, you have your own webserver with whatever software you want on your USB key!  It’s your webserver, you can do what you want with it and if you stuff something up it only affects you so all you do is delete it and reinstall it again! You see it doesn’t install anything to your actual computer, it’s all contained on the USB key so your computer won’t get clogged up with junk.

Now you may already have access to say Moodle and in fact my web hosting account comes with the option to install Moodle which I have done.  The problem I’ve found is that it’s too slow running from my web hosting account which I think is due to the fact that my web hosting is in the US.  Having MoWeS + Moodle on my USB key is blindingly quick which for me is a God send.

In my next post I’ll go through how to install MoWeS but in the mean time check out the MoWeS Portable website for all the features.