The first version of the Publishing Edition was created within a client project in the year 2004. The task was to create a CD which could be started on a Windows PC without requiring any additional software. This solution was greatly loved by our clients right up to the moment when with Windows XP the firewall was activated with SP1 by default.
Not that our solution did not run any more, but since our solution used local port 8088, the Windows firewall blocked this particular local port. In the final analysis this meant that for most users working with our Publishing Edition went from worry-free to hiccup-laden.
We could go into arguing that it makes little sense to shut the local ports in a local environment by default when at the same time (at least at the time) it was possible to write on the hard disk via the temporary directory. However, when you want to open a self-supporting archive, then such deliberations are hardly of interest to you. You simply want to work with your archive.
From a vendor's point of view it was a deplorable situation. We did make all the right choices with Web, MySQL and Windows, did we not? Bad luck when we propose but Windows disposes. Windows is not fond of Web technologies and this is not our fault. But even this will be of little interest to you when you are trying to make archived data available.
As long-term reaction to this (and other) experiences ArchivistaBox has come into being: a solution which on the one hand keeps favouring Web technologies and on the other can be deployed as stand-alone, embedded box solution to be at all events prepared for future imponderabilities.
Until a few months ago using an ArchivistaBox required that the software be set up and the data to be archived needed to be added. Because of this, ArchivistaBox could not produce self-supporting archive CDs. It was then decided to enable ArchivistaBox to create self-supporting CDs anytime from a running system. These CDs were to serve a double purpose: for one they should be liveCDs viewable as live archives, and for another they should serve as installation CDs whereby an archive could be put back onto the server and where new data could be added.
We can only be grateful that at that time the Windows firewall shut the local ports because it gave us the possibility to make an effort towards a solution which is in every direction much more open than the previous Publishing Edition.
With the new solution (which is - it goes without saying - 100 percent OpenSource) no Window license is needed nor do we have to list any version numbers or ServicePacks as prerequisites. All we need is: a) a computer with 256 MByte RAM or b) a virtual box with 256 MByte RAM. Everything else is handled by the ArchivistaBox: and suddenly publishing archives is easy.
We are of the opinion that the Roman Numeral II in the chapter heading is justified. We wish you and us much success and pleasure with the new Publishing Edition.