WordPress focuses on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.

Installation

Download and unzip the WordPress package, if you haven't already
Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it
Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php
Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details.
Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server
Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser

Here are some key features of "WordPress":

· Full standards compliance - We have gone to great lengths to make sure every bit of WordPress generated code is in full compliance with the standards of the W3C. This is important not only for interoperability with today's browser but also for forward compatibility with the tools of the next generation. Your web site is a beautiful thing, and you should demand nothing less.
· No rebuilding - Changes you make to your templates or entries are reflected immediately on your site, with no need for regenerating static pages.
· WordPress Pages - Pages allow you to manage non-blog content easily, so for example you could have a static "About" page that you manage through WordPress. For an idea of how powerful this is, the entire WordPress.org site could be run off WordPress alone. (We don't for technical mirroring reasons.)
· WordPress Links - Links allows you to create, maintain, and update any number of blogrolls through your administration interface. This is much faster than calling an external blogroll manager.
· WordPress Themes - WordPress comes with a full theme system which makes designing everything from the simplest blog to the most complicated webzine a piece of cake, and you can even have multiple themes with totally different looks that you switch with a single click. Have a new design every day.
· Cross-blog communication tools - WordPress fully supports both the Trackback and Pingback standards, and we are committed to supporting future standards as they develop.
· Comments - Visitors to your site can leave comments on individual entries, and through Trackback or Pingback can comment on their own site. You can enable or disable comments on a per-post basis.
· Spam protection - Out of the box WordPress comes with very robust tools such as an integrated blacklist and open proxy checker to manage and eliminate comment spam on your blog, and there is also a rich array of plugins that can take this functionality a step further.
· Full user registration - WordPress has a built-in user registration system that (if you choose) can allow people to register and maintain profiles and leave authenticated comments on your blog. You can optionally close comments for non-registered users. There are also plugins that hide posts from lower level users.
· Password Protected Posts - You can give passwords to individual posts to hide them from the public. You can also have private posts which are viewable only by their author.
· Easy installation and upgrades - Installing WordPress and upgrading from previous versions and other software is a piece of cake.

Requirements:

· PHP version 4.3 or greater
· MySQL version 4.0 or greater
· mod_rewrite Apache module

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· 2.8.6 fixes two security problems that can be exploited by registered, logged in users who have posting privileges.
· The first problem is an XSS vulnerability in Press This discovered
· The second problem is an issue with sanitizing uploaded file names that can be exploited in certain Apache configurations.