Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition

Which Unix?

The choice is commonly between some sort of Linux and FreeBSD. Both are technically acceptable. If you already know someone who has one of these OSs and is willing to help you get used to yours, then it would make sense to follow them. If you are an Apple user, OS X has a Unix core and includes Apache.

Failing that, the difference between the two paths is mainly a legal one, turning on their different interperations of open source licensing.

Linux lives at http://www.linux.org, and there are more than 160 different distributions from which Linux can be obtained free or in prepackaged pay-for formats. It is rather ominously described as a “Unix-type” operating system, which sometimes means that long-established Unix standards have been “improved”, not always in an upwards direction.

Linux supports Apache, and most of the standard distributions include it. However, the default position of the Config files may vary from platform to platform, though usually on Linux they are to be found in /etc. Under Red Hat Linux they will be in/etc/httpd/conf by default.

FreeBSD (“BSD” means “Berkeley Software Distribution” — as in the University of California, Berkeley, where the version of Unix FreeBSD is derived from) lives at http://www.freebsd.org. We have been using FreeBSD for a long time and think it is the best environment.

If you look at http://www.netcraft.com and go to What’s that site running?, you can examine any web site you like. If you choose, let’s say, http://www.microsoft.com ...