What is it?
The Apache HTTP server - now 10 years old - is the
product of an open source initiative dedicated to keeping the
internet free from commercial control. It is a key part of the Lamp
(Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python) platform.
Apache has been the most popular HTTP server on the internet
since 1996. Although both Apache and Microsoft IIS are gaining
numbers, their market shares are relatively constant, at just under
70% and just over 20% respectively.
In October this year Apache passed another milestone, with over
50 million sites recorded by the Netcraft survey, up from 40
million in February.
Where did it originate?
At the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA),
University of Illinois, in 1995. It was put together out of patches
for the old NCSA HTTP server, hence the name: "a patchy server".
More recently it has been claimed the name was chosen out of
respect for the strength and endurance of the Apache nation.
The Apache Software Foundation's philosophy is, "The tools of
online publishing should be in the hands of everyone, and software
companies should make their money providing value-added services
such as specialised modules and support... To the extent that the
protocols of the world wide web remain 'unowned' by a single
company, the web will remain a level playing field for companies
large and small."
The Apache Software Foundation is behind dozens of other open
source projects, including the Tomcat Java servlet container,
mod_perl, and the Struts Java application framework.
What is it for?
Apache is highly configurable and can be extended using compiled
modules to provide support for many different server side
programming languages, authentication schemes and other features.
New modules can be written using the Apache module API.
What makes it special?
Other web servers have achieved better benchmarks, but the
Apache team said, "We feel that it is better to have a mostly fast
free server than an extremely fast server that costs thousands of
dollars. Apache is run on sites that get millions of hits per day,
and they have experienced no performance difficulties."
Apache has the reputation of being more secure than IIS, and of
being fixed more quickly and effectively when it does go wrong.
How difficult is it to master?
It is getting easier, with a number of graphical user interfaces
now available. A background in Unix/Linux/Solaris system admin, and
Perl or PHP programming is helpful.
Where is it used?
Apache has been taken up across the board, from bloggers to
trans-national corporations who could easily afford the most
expensive of Apache's competitors.
What systems does it run on?
About 30 different operating systems, including most flavours of
Unix, Linux and BSD, Windows, Mac OSX and Novell Netware. Apache is
bundled with Linux distributions and hundreds of proprietary
packages including the Oracle RDBMS, IBM's Websphere application
server and Borland's Kylix and Delphi development suites.
What is coming up?
Major releases are rare, since development is not driven by
licence revenue. Bug fixes are far more frequent. The Apache
Software Foundation receives about 40 contributions a day from
developers and users.