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Before we dive in, just a quick word about our supporter for this Deep Dive, Safe

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Server.

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They manage the hosting for this software, and they're ready to support you with

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your

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digital transformation too.

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You can find more info at www.safeserver.dst.

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Welcome back to the Deep Dive.

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Today we're looking at the sources you sent over, and we're going to peel back the

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layers

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on something called static site generators.

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Sounds maybe a bit technical.

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Yeah, it can sound that way at first.

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But honestly, for your projects, it could be this really empowering shortcut to

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getting

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your ideas online.

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So our mission here is to give you a clear, straightforward understanding,

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especially

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if you're kind of new to this and just want a simpler way to publish stuff.

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Exactly.

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And we're zoning in on one specific tool today, a Python-based one called Pelican.

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That's the plan.

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So for this Deep Dive, we've really dug into the key info from two main places, the

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official

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Pelican website itself, and also its GitHub repository.

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And these give us a really good picture of what Pelican is, how it actually works,

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and

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importantly, what you can do with it.

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We want to be sure you leave this with a really clear sense of why this might be a

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great option

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for your own website or project.

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Okay, sounds good.

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Let's unpack this then.

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So many of you listening probably have a sense of how lots of websites work, right?

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They often have these complex databases running in the background.

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Definitely fetching data.

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Yeah, talking to servers that are running pretty intricate code.

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It's almost like imagine a busy restaurant kitchen, right?

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Every dish made fresh to order, ingredients pulled from this huge pantry.

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It's powerful, sure.

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Definitely powerful for dynamic stuff, yeah.

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But it can also be quite daunting to manage.

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You need server knowledge, constant updates, security worries.

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It feels like you need to be a top chef just to make a simple sandwich sometimes.

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That's a good analogy.

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So for sites that are mostly about content, like a blog maybe or a portfolio, what

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if

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there was just a simpler way?

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What if you didn't meet all the database stuff or complex server programming?

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And what's really interesting is there is a fundamentally simpler way.

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And Pelikan, well, it's a perfect example of that whole philosophy is what's known

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as

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a static site generator.

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And it's written in Python.

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Its main job is actually brilliantly straightforward.

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Instead of that dynamic kitchen, you basically pre-bake everything.

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Oh, OK.

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You write your website content using simple text files formats like Markdown or

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maybe restructured

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text.

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Think of them as just, you know, enhanced text documents, easy to write in any

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editor.

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Right.

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I use Markdown sometimes.

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It's pretty clean.

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Exactly.

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Then Pelikan takes those text files and just transforms them into a complete ready-to-go

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website.

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HTML, CSS, JavaScript files, all static.

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Static meaning no processing needed on the server when someone visits it.

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Precisely.

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No static code running.

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No database lookups for that page view.

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The files are just served as they are.

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And the insight here is how that simplicity makes the site inherently more secure,

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much

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faster and honestly cheaper to host and maintain.

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Right.

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Because there's less to go wrong, less to manage.

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Exactly.

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It's a different way of thinking about web architecture, especially for content-heavy

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sites.

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That does shift the perspective.

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So the real sort of magic is turning that simple text into these static files.

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HTML, CSS, JavaScript.

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Does that mean hosting gets really easy compared to a typical WordPress site or

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something?

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Oh, absolutely.

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Almost trivial sometimes.

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I remember spending a whole weekend one time debugging some rogue plugin that

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crashed my

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simple blog.

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Honestly, if I'd known about tools like Pelican back then, it could have saved a

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lot of hassle.

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We've all been there, I think.

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So what does the simplicity mean for you listening right now when you just want to

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get your stuff

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out there?

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It really means less fuss, right?

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Less server admin headache and just an easier path to getting published.

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And if we look at Pelican's core features, they're all built around this idea.

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First, you get what we could call content freedom.

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Okay.

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Write in your favorite editor, use markdown or restructure text.

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They're easy to learn, widely used.

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Second, automated generation.

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A simple command you run and poof, it rebuilds your site from your text files when

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things

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change.

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Like hitting compile almost.

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Sort of, yeah.

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But for your website, third, and this is key, easy hosting.

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Because the output is just plain static files, HTML, CSS, JS, you'd host it

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literally anywhere.

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Any basic web server cloud stores like S3, Netlify, GitHub pages, anywhere they can

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serve

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files.

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No special PHP or Python hosting needed?

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Nope, not at all.

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Yeah.

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Just needs to serve files.

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And finally, because it is all just files, it's naturally version control ready.

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Easy to use with Git, track changes, collaborate, Pelican's own code is on GitHub,

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so it fits

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right into that workflow.

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That version control aspect is huge, especially if you're working with others or

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just want

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a safety net.

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OK.

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So that's the solid foundation.

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Simple, efficient.

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But, you know, often the things that make you really choose a tool are the extra

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bits,

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the sort of wow factors.

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Does Pelican have things like that beyond just the basic text to HTML?

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That's a fair question.

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And yeah, it does pack quite a few punches beyond the basics.

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For instance, it handles both chronological content, your typical blog posts or

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articles

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ordered by date, and also static pages like an about page or a contact page.

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Really smoothly.

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Ah, good.

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So it's not just for blogs.

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Not at all.

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And for how it looks.

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It uses site themes built with Jinja 2 templates.

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Jinja is a pretty popular templating engine in the Python world.

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Right.

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So that gives you a ton of flexibility to customize the appearance without digging

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into Pelican's

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core code.

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You can really make it look unique.

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Nice.

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What about reaching a wider audience?

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Well, it has built-in support for publishing articles in multiple languages.

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Which is quite neat.

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It handles the structure needed to serve, say, an English and a Spanish version of

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your

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site.

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Oh wow.

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That's actually a big deal for some projects.

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It really can be.

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It also automatically generates Atom and RSS feeds.

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These are those feeds people can subscribe to in feed readers so they get notified

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about

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your new posts automatically.

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Great for building loyal readership.

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Essential for blogs, yeah.

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And if you're writing about tech, it has code syntax highlighting using a library

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called

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Pigments.

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Makes code snippets in your articles look really clean and readable.

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Oh, that's crucial for technical blogs or documentation, definitely.

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And another big one, if you're maybe thinking of switching from something else, Pelikan

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can actually import existing content from platforms like WordPress, DotClear, or

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even

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just from RSS feeds.

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Seriously, that could save hours of manual work.

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It's a huge help for migration, yeah.

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And performance-wise, it focuses on fast rebuild times.

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It uses caching and only writes out files that have actually changed.

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So regenerating the site, even with lots of content, stays pretty quick.

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Smart.

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Doesn't rebuild everything every single time.

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Exactly.

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And lastly, if there's something specific you need that isn't built in, there's a

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really

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rich plugin ecosystem.

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Lots of community-contributed plugins to add features.

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Or you can write your own if you're comfortable with Python.

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Wow.

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This list is genuinely impressive.

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It starts simple, but there's clearly a lot of power under the hood.

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The multi-language support, the importer, those are really practical wins.

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They really are.

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And I actually stumbled on a little fun fact about the name, speaking of neat

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things.

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Apparently, Pelican is an anagram.

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Of what?

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Of a calipin.

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It's a French word for a small notebook.

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Huh.

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That's clever.

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A little nod to organizing your notes into a site.

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I like that.

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Yeah, me too.

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All right, so we've established Pelican is powerful, versatile, sounds great.

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But the big question for a lot of listeners, especially the beginners we're

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thinking about

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today is, can I actually use this?

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How easy is it to get started if you're maybe not super technical?

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That's the crucial question, isn't it?

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And the answer is, it's designed to be pretty accessible.

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The official quick start guide really aims to get you going quickly, even if maybe

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you

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haven't used the command line much before.

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Okay, let's hear it.

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Let's talk us through it.

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Imagine I'm, say, a student wanting a simple portfolio or someone starting a hobby

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blog.

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How do I go from zero to seeing something?

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Right.

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So step one is installation.

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Assuming you have Python on your computer, which many systems do, or it's easy to

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install,

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you just open your terminal or command prompt.

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Okay.

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That black window thing?

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Yep.

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You type this command, python-m pip install pelican markdown.

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You hit enter.

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Pip is Python's package installer.

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This usually takes less than a minute, and it downloads and installs Pelican and

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the

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bits needed for markdown.

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Okay.

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Pip install pelican markdown.

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Got it.

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Step two, you create your project.

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So you make a new folder somewhere for your website, let's call it MyAwesomeSite.

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You navigate into that folder in your terminal.

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Using CD probably?

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Exactly.

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Using CD MyAwesomeSite.

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Then right there, you type pelican quickstart and hit enter.

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Pelican quickstart.

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Okay.

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This command starts a little interactive questionnaire that'll ask you things like,

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what's the title

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of your site?

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What's the author?

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And importantly, what's the main URL going to be?

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Like https.my-awesome-site.com or whatever.

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You just answer the questions.

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And it sets up the folders and basic files for me.

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Precisely.

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Creates the basic structure, like a content folder for your articles, an output

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folder

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for the generated site, a settings file, all ready to go.

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Okay.

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Structures there.

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Now, the actual content.

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Step three.

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Write your first article.

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You just open.

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The text editor could be notepad, VS code, supplying text, anything.

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You create a new file inside that content folder it made.

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Let's call it firstpost.md.

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The MD is for Markdown.

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Right.

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Inside that file, you put a few lines at the very top for metadata.

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Like my first post, 20, 23, 10, 27, 0.00.

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Scalica.

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Musings.

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Then just below that, you start writing your actual article content using Markdown

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formatting.

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You know, like this is my first post using Pelican.

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That's pretty cool.

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Simple enough.

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Title, date, category, then the text.

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Exactly.

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And step four, the payoff.

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Preview your site.

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You go back to your terminal.

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Make sure you're still in your main project folder.

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My awesome site.

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And you type Pelican Nessure RL.

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Pelican Nessure RL.

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What does the RRN do?

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Good question.

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That R tells Pelican to keep running and automatically regenerate the site if you

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change any content

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files.

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And Desk tells it to launch a simple local web server so you can view the site.

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Ah.

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Handy.

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So it builds it and serves it locally.

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Yep.

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So it builds the site into the output folder and then usually say something like,

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serving

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site at http.localhost.800.

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You just open your regular web browser, go to that address.

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And I should see my site.

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With my first post.

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You should see your brand new site using the default theme initially with my first

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post

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right there.

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It's usually a real aha moment.

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OK.

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Those four steps, install, quick start, write a file, preview.

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That does sound genuinely manageable.

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It really lowers the barrier to just getting something up and running quickly,

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which is

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fantastic for learning and experimenting.

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That's the whole idea.

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Get you focused on content quickly.

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Now, if someone does run into a little snag or wants to go beyond that basic setup,

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where

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does the community aspect come in?

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You mentioned it's open source.

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Right.

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And that's a huge strength.

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Pelican is fundamentally an open source project.

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It lives on GitHub and it's pretty active looking at the stats.

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It has over 13,000 stars, about 1800 forks.

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That's quite a lot.

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That indicates a healthy user base.

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Definitely.

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It means people are using it, interested in it, contributing to it.

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So for you as a user, that means the code is well tested and there's a community

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around

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it.

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If you hit a problem, chances are someone else has too.

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And there might be a solution on an issue tracker or forum.

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And the license.

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It's licensed under the AGPL 3.0.

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That's a strong copy left license, ensuring it stays free and open source.

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And if you peek under the hood, it's mostly Python, about 89%, then some CSS and

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ginger

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for templating.

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Okay.

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So a strong open source foundation.

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If our listeners are thinking, okay, I want to try this or maybe even, hey, I could

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help

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out.

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What are the best places to go for help or to get involved?

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Great question.

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There are several avenues.

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First stop for almost any question should be the official Pelican documentation.

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It's really comprehensive, well written, covers everything from the basics right up

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to advanced

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customization and plugin development.

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Always good to have solid docs.

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Absolutely essential.

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Then if you want to actually contribute back, you can do that on GitHub.

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You could submit pull requests if you find a bug and fix it, or if you add a new

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feature.

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You could help triage issues that other people report, confirming bugs, asking for

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more info,

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or a really valuable way to help is by improving the documentation itself.

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Clearer docs help everyone.

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That's often overlooked, but yeah, it's so important.

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If you just want to support the project financially, keep the development going,

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you can donate

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to the Pelican dev team, they have links on their site, like donate.getpelican.com,

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or

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they're on platforms like LibrePay.

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Every little bit helps maintain and improve the tool.

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And we should also mention, one of the project's key supporters is Fortressa

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companies sponsoring

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open source like this makes a real difference.

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Definitely good to acknowledge the supporters.

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Okay, so wrapping things up a bit, we've taken this deep dive into Pelican.

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It's a static site generator written in Python.

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The big takeaway seems to be how it simplifies getting a website online.

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You write in simple text files.

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Like Markdown.

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Right.

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Like Markdown.

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Pelican turns them into a full HTML website.

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No complex database needed on the live site.

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No tricky server-side code just to display your content.

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It feels really accessible, powerful too, especially if you're starting out and

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want

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a blog or a portfolio without the usual backend headaches.

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Yeah.

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It puts the power back in your hands, focusing you on the content.

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What's really fascinating to me here is just that core idea of static generation

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itself.

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How tools like Pelican strip away all those layers of complexity we often associate

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with

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websites.

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00:13:51,820 --> 00:13:52,820
Exactly.

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It makes things simpler, faster, more secure in many cases.

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It really lowers the barrier for anyone who just wants to publish something online.

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It makes a solid web presence feel much more achievable, regardless of how

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00:14:03,350 --> 00:14:04,220
technical you

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00:14:04,220 --> 00:14:05,220
are.

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It's quite empowering.

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It really is.

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00:14:07,220 --> 00:14:11,620
And that leads to maybe a final thought for you, the listener.

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Now that you know how accessible static site generation can be with tools like Pelican,

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00:14:16,100 --> 00:14:18,340
what new possibilities does that open up?

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00:14:18,340 --> 00:14:20,060
Is it that blog you've been meaning to start?

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A simple site for a side project?

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00:14:22,060 --> 00:14:24,200
Maybe documentation for something you're building?

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The tools are there?

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00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:27,420
And maybe simpler than you thought.

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And before we go, once again, a huge thank you to our supporter, SafeServer.

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00:14:31,100 --> 00:14:34,480
For all your hosting needs and digital transformation support, remember to check

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00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:36,900
them out at www.SafeServer.de.