What to Install

Mixtapes

OpenTape

Want to host your own mixtapes? Give OpenTape a try. Installing OpenTape is a great first project, because you don't even need to configure anything. Download the latest version of the application from here. Unpack it. Upload it to your server with FTP - and that's it. You will set up a user name and password when you first surf to the site and after that, you can easily upload and play your songs.

Blogging

Wordpress

When it comes to hosting your own blog, few packages can trump Wordpress. The install shouldn't take more than 10 minutes and because Wordpress is so popular, literally hundreds of developers are building extensions and themes for it. Make sure you have your database info at hand, as you will have to enter this info into a text file to install Wordpress.

Drupal

Another blogging tool that is more flexible than Wordpress, but also a bit harder to use, is Drupal. The installation, too, is very easy, and Drupal has a highly active developer community and hundreds of addons and themes. For most users, Wordpress does the trick, but if you want to experiment with different blogging platforms, Drupal is a good place to start.

Photo Sharing

Gallery

We like to stay in control of our own photos, and our favorite application to host photos on our own sites is Menalto's Gallery (note, btw, that Wordpress now also has some good features for doing photo-blogs). Gallery is extremely flexible and powerful, but setting up your own page is actually quite easy (the install instructions make it look harder than it is). With Gallery, you can set up and modify your themes, control access to your photos, and thanks to the Gallery Remote, uploading pictures to it is extremely easy.

Lifestream

Sweetcron

We love FriendFeed, but sometimes you don't want to host your own lifestream (it's your life, after all...). That's where Sweetcron comes in. Sweetcron (see an example here), can import your diggs, twitter messages, YouTube favorites, blog posts, etc. and lets you display them on your own site.

Social Network

elgg

Want to host your own social network for a club or class? Elgg is the way to go. While it's a powerful package, installation is as easy as installing Wordpress. Elgg comes with every feature you expect from a social network: profile pages, activity feeds, blogs, forums, bookmarks, etc.

What do You Run On Your Servers?

Do you have your own favorite software packages that you run on your servers? Maybe a wiki, a Digg clone, or a micro-blogging service? Let us know in the comments.

CC-licensed picture of tools was used courtesy of Flickr user flattop341.