Symphony.

OK, new topic. I tried again, wiped and recreated the mysql database, unzipped the symphony archive into ~ed/Sites/sym (This on a mac) when I clicked install symphony I was redirected to http://localhost/~ed/sym/symphony/publish/articles/ and get a 404 page saying The requested URL /~ed/sym/symphony/publish/articles/ was not found on this server.

Looking in the symphony directory there is no publish drectory within symphony or indeed anywhere in the install directory. The install log says everything worked OK.

Any clue what I can do next (other than try v1.7)

Do you have mod rewrite activated? And did you upload the .htaccess which is inside the symphony folder?

Well I think the .htaccess file isn't created until the install is run. But Skubidu's right, the problem is likely with mod_rewrite. If it's enabled an you're still getting that problem, make sure you're allowing overrides in that web directory in your httpd.conf file, otherwise the .htaccess file will be ineffective.

OK, adding "AllowOverrides All" for the symphony directory seemed to do the trick assuming I am meant to begin with a primer on Symphony 2's default theme.

I have noticed a stylesheet oddity, when I display a new page it appears unstyled, if I refresh then the styling materialises.

Glad to hear mod_rewrite is working for you now. Not sure what the stylesheet issue could be. What browser are you using?