Done and done, MT appears to be alive and well on my server.

After getting all the info for my installation together, I have to admit, things went very smoothly.
I think its mostly because by 2003, most ISP’s have the basic setups in place to make MT work on their customers web space without too much hassle. A database with MYSQL, the latest PERL installed, inexpensive Unix hosting all made my installation a breeze. People reading this who are thinking of starting their own blog site or using movabletype for whatever purpose would do well to check out www.omnis.com, my provider. Hosting plans start at $1 a month, with features added ala carte. (hey mention my name, if you do.) So for another buck you can add MYSQL, (they do charge a fee for setup initially) and thats all you need for MT. You get an email account with it for free, you can add as many more as you like.
So if you are still with me as far as advice for a smooth install goes, get your FTP user name and pw so you can upload MT to your website, log into your control panel and print out your website info (this will help keep you organized) as your database info can all be found online using omnis’s webserver control panel.
Laundry list: Your SQL path, database name, database username and pw, FTP user name and password. To make changes to your config file, Mac OS 9 users should head over to www.versiontracker.com and download the free lite version of bbedit. OS X users can also get a copy of bbedit, or just use Textedit which comes with OS X. PC users can use wordpad. And finally, get a GOOD FTP program! (windows ftp application choices just plain blow imho. Im sorry, but the mac’s Transmit application from www.panic.com/transmit/ is just so sweet. It has a split pane window, your stuff on one side, their stuff on the other. Drag files between the windows. Rename files, make folders, change permissions (using the Mac OS’s standard get info command, what could be easier than that? This is imperitive for Movable type to work, but using a Unix shell? “chmod 755 blah blah blah?” Nein, thank you)

I think any advice I give for successfully doing this for your web site besides including the above info would have to include getting and knowing the tools you use. It makes a big difference.
If you dont know ftp from tp, then drop me a line, maybe there is some need for a how-to, bare bones install guide for mac peeps. (and pc peeps too). Or maybe just this advice written as something other than a nonsensical rambling. 🙂