Here is what scripts.mit.edu is, in the context of commercial web hosting providers:

  • It is a shared hosting service, running on a single server.  (Databases used by scripts.mit.edu apps are run on a separate server, sql.mit.edu.)
  • It is free.
  • It does not provide local storage.  Users store their files in AFS.
  • It supports only CGI execution for dynamic content (no mod_php).
  • It has no control panel.  An Athena script in the scripts locker provides easy installation of standard web apps.
  • In addition to web hosting, it also provides procmail scripts and cron jobs.
  • In addition to AFS, it integrates minimally with Zephyr (user apps can send unauthenticated Zephyr messages using zwrite).

Standard installers provided for scripts.mit.edu include a wiki app (MediaWiki), a blog app (WordPress), two CMS apps (Joomla and e107) which incorporate a variety of features, a photo gallery app (Gallery2), a forum app (phpBB), a guest book app (Advanced Guest book), a poll app (Advanced Poll), and a calendar app (PHP iCalendar).  It also appears common to develop content for scripts.mit.edu using Dreamweaver.

Because of the way scripts.mit.edu provides virtual hosting, it is easy to get a list of all scripts.mit.edu users who have virtual hostnames for their content.  Of course, there are many users who do not, but the ones who have asked for hostnames are likely the ones with the greatest investment in the service.  Some notes on scripts sites with virtual hostnames:

  • At the current time, there are about 35 of them, excluding clearly unfinished or broken sites.
  • Most of them are student group sites, living group sites, or research group sites.
  • Outliers include one personal website, a custom app for book exchanges (bookx.mit.edu), two course web sites, and wikis for a couple of MIT Libraries groups.
  • Most sites use standard installed software (particularly MediaWiki, but also Joomla and WordPress); a handful appear to use Dreamweaver.  A few clearly use custom code.
  • A number of sites provide essentially static content to the community, and are only hosted on scripts.mit.edu in order to get a better publishing interface for the content creator.
  • Although it's possible to integrate with the MIT namespace using certificates seamlessly (bookx.mit.edu is a great example), many scripts apps use their own username/password database, presumably because it's easier.
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