Web hosting technology has come a long way since the early days of the web. Apache HTTP server, PHP and MySQL databases are just a few examples of how open source software has spurred innovation in web hosting.
Apache HTTP server
Apache is a free, open source web server. It's the most popular web server in the world, and for good reason: it's a stable and secure web server that runs on nearly every platform out there. The Apache HTTP Server Project supports over 100 million websites today.
The latest version of Apache (2.4) was released in March 2018, with only bug fixes since then. This means that if you are running an older version of Apache (like 1.), you should probably upgrade to 2. as soon as possible!
PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language. It is a multi-platform, multi-threaded, object-oriented programming language. PHP also has an interactive command line interpreter that allows you to run commands and scripts from the terminal or shell prompt. Because of this, it can act as both a standalone development platform and as a server module for larger projects.
The open source nature of PHP makes it available on almost all modern operating systems including Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server (x86 only), Mac OS X 10.3+ PowerPC or Intel support with Fink package manager or Darwin Ports collection (Mac OS X 10.2 required), Linux 2.2+ glibc2 with threading support enabled, FreeBSD 4+, NetBSD 1+.
MySQL database
MySQL is a popular database system. It is most commonly used to store and manage data in relational databases (tables with rows and columns).
MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. In this manner, it can be compared to Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL or Oracle Database Server. MySQL started as an open source project but was later acquired by Sun Microsystems and then by Oracle Corporation.
The name "MySQL" comes from Monty Widenius's daughter's name My (pronounced Mih), followed by S for Sleepyhead, since she did not like sleeping at night. The acronym originally stood for "Monty's Internal Query Language"; however, when Widenius registered the MySQL trademark he decided to change the meaning of the acronym so that it would stand for nothing.
Linux-based web hosting solutions
Linux-based web hosting solutions are the most popular and cost effective option for web hosting. Linux is a free and open source operating system that's been around for over 30 years, so it's been tested thoroughly in all kinds of environments. If you're looking for an operating system that's stable, secure, and scalable---Linux is your best bet!
Linux open source solutions combined with PHP and MySQL are the foundation of many web service provider networks.
Linux is a free operating system available for many different hardware platforms. Linux has been around for a long time and has proven to be reliable, secure and fast. If you have ever used it, you know that it can also be extremely versatile and powerful.
Linux is one of the most popular operating systems in use today for hosting web servers. This is because it is free (in terms of no cost) yet reliable, secure and fast. It supports multiple programming languages out-of-the-box such as PHP or Python which are becoming very popular in modern web development environments because they are portable across various platforms including Windows®, Mac® OS X®, Linux® etcetera while maintaining high performance levels regardless of CPU type used during execution (x86 32 bit or 64 bit architecture).
Conclusion
Linux open source solutions combined with PHP and MySQL are the foundation of many web service provider networks. The combination has proven to be reliable and scalable for many years, so it's no surprise that experienced web developers continue to use these technologies today.
