What is it?
The Apache HTTP web
server has lost a great deal of market share to
Microsoft's IIS in the last couple of years. But since its
share once amounted to almost 80 per cent of the market, a
readjustment was perhaps inevitable.
In recent months, Apache's fall and IIS's growth both seem to
have levelled out, giving Apache just over 50 per cent, and IIS
just under 36 per cent. These figures come from
Netcraft, which looks at
absolute numbers, regardless of the size of the site. A survey of
the "top 100" US sites gives Apache 49 per cent, and IIS 20 per
cent.
The Apache Software Foundation describes its HTTP Server Project
as "a collaborative software development effort aimed at creating a
robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely available source
code implementation of an HTTP (web) server", protecting the
protocols of the web from proprietary ownership. The open source,
free-to-download web server has also achieved wide success among
commercial vendors: it is bundled by the likes of
IBM and
Oracle,
as well as with most Linux
distributions.
Where did it originate?
Apache was put together from the many patches supplied by
different hands for the public domain HTTP daemon (httpd) developed
at the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois. Apache 1.0
was released in 1995, and grew as the web grew. The Apache Software
Foundation was established in 1999, and is now responsible for more
than 30 projects, including the
Struts open source Java
application framework, and the
Tomcat servlet
container.
What's it for?
Apache is the web server component of the
Lamp
stack, along with Linux, MySGL or Postgres, and PHP, Python or
Perl. But it's also used with LAMP equivalents based on Windows,
and on Sun's Solaris, and is supplied with Mac OSX. Apache has
moved a long way from simply serving static and dynamic web pages,
with authentication and cryptography, and support for scripting
languages.
What makes it special?
Although Apache is constantly evolving by way of regular bug-fix
and security releases, it's been remarkably stable, with just two
major versions since 1995. While champions tend to exaggerate its
security record (it's just as vulnerable to sloppy configuration
and administration), it hasn't suffered the widespread and high
profile problems that have sometimes followed releases of IIS.
How difficult is it to master?
Not for the faint-hearted. The tutorial material on the
apache.org site requires you to
download the software and get stuck in, and as a result, many posts
about Apache are from would-be beginners seeking guidance. Much of
this "official" material is also years out of date. But there are
plenty of independent sites offering tutorials and support.
What systems does it run on?
Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OSX, Netware and others.
Rates of pay
Linux and Apache systems administrators start at around £25k and
can look for up to £45k with two years' experience.
Training
For downloads and tutorials, begin
at apache.org.
There are links to friendlier external tutorials
here.
For Windows users.
Other implementations.
Most tutorials plunge you straight in without an overview there
are plenty of books providing a gentler introduction, though Amazon
is a better place to start than the out-of-date list on the Apache
site.