It seems to me that we're not really to the point where people use OpenACS "out of the box" without much customization. We're getting close to that point, and with edit-this-page and CMS maturing, I think we may get there in a year or two.
I think this is very much a goal to work towards, however. Adoption of OpenACS will balloon if we make the process easier than it is now.
Joel's doing good work in the meantime.
I think a good subgoal, however, would be to make installation of the components underneath OpenACS easier.
For Debian, for example, being able to apt-get install Aolserver, Postgres, and so on would make the process pretty easy. Joining that with CVS, and you could conceivably make an entire install in a half an hour or less. That would be nice, but it would require a lot of work from some dedicated volunteers.
I know Roberto has done some work on Debian packages. We'd need more testing of those Debian packages, and then a blessing of them in the official documentation.
Of course, all of this requires volunteers. 😊
