Apache is the WebServer for Linux. It also runs on most other OpenSource (and not so open source) OperatingSystems. It started life as a heap of patches circulating for NCSA's httpd which was no longer maintained. Eventually, a group of developers collected all the patches and consolidated them into their own version of the web server - "A Patchy Server". Hence the name, "Apache Server".

Apache is one of the critical components of LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP).

According to http

//httpd.apache.org: : The Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and maintain an open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX and WindowsNT. The goal of this project is to provide a secure, efficient and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync with the current HTTP standards.

Apache has been the most popular web server on the Internet since April of 1996. The July 2003 Netcraft Web Server Survey found that 63% of the web sites on the Internet are using Apache, thus making it more widely used than all other web servers combined.

The Apache OpenSourceProject has many subprojects (which they confusingly call projects, but never mind), including: the Apache HTTP Server, the Ant build program, the XML project (which releases Xerces, Xalan and AXIS) and the PHP ProgrammingLanguage.

See Also:

• RewriteRules
• ApacheNotes
• ApacheTomcat?