The quickest I've set up a new Joomla! based web site, from domain name registration to a live site with its basic content, was 45 minutes. Granted, the domain name going live was out of my hands but the rest wasn't.

Many hosting companies do not have Joomla! pre-installed so you need to install the files yourself. Many of those with Joomla! pre-installed offer older versions of Joomla! and not the latest release.

To install Joomla! CMS on your server literally take a few minutes. Here's what I do after I registered a domain and added the new domain to my FTP program (I use CuteFTP)

1. In my hosting control panel I create a mySQL database
2. I upload the zipped Joomla! full package file to the server via FTP (I normally use the tar.gz file)
3. I then unzip the file with Telnet in less than a minute - I use Putty for this
   
   Unzip instructions:
   
   tar.gz:  tar -xzvf Joomla_.tar.gz_file_name
   zip:  unzip  Joomla_.zip_file_name
   
4. Then open the domain in your browser to run the Joomla! installation program.
   
   Tip: Keep your Telnet open in order to easily delete the installation folder after installation with the following instruction:
   
   rm -rf installation
   
5. And you are ready to start working on your new Joomla! web site - probably in less than 5 miutes.
   
   Note: With a new domain you may have to use the temporary url to do the installation.
   
   Security Note: Remember to change your Admin user name and password once you opened the Administrator