Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Popular Server Software

Any computer can be a server as long as it is running server software. Today, there are many server packages available, but the overwhelming leaders are Apache and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) .

Apache

The majority of servers today (approximately 70%) run Apache. Powerful and full-featured, it has always been available for free. It runs primarily on the Unix platform but is also available on other platforms, including Windows NT/2000 and Mac OS X.

The core installation of Apache has limited functionality, but it can be expanded and customized easily by adding modules. Apache calls on each module to perform a dedicated task, such as user authentication or database queries. You can pick up a copy of the Apache server and its documentation from the Apache home page at http://www.apache.org

Internet Information Server (IIS)

This is Microsoft’s server package, which is also available without charge. IIS runs on the Windows NT platform. IIS has developed into a powerful and stable server option that is somewhat easier to set up and maintain than its Unix competitor. It has many advanced server features, including ASP (Active Server Pages) for server-side scripting. As of this writing, approximately 20% of sites run on IIS servers. For more information, see the Windows Server System pages at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/.

Two good sites for information and statistics on popular servers are ServerWatch (http://www.serverwatch.com) and ...