I'm currently shopping around for hosting, I plan to use a CMS system for my site, probably Joomla or WordPress. What should my host offer inorder to make these programs usable?
Just about everyone supports wordpress. PHP is required for both of those. Just check to see what their auto installer offers. cPanel with Fantastico offers both of those on every site I have seen.
php and mysql is basically all, i use bravenet for my hosting and ive had Joomla! installed and it worked fine, right now im using another open source cms and still no problerms with it.