Recommendations for webserver software?

[AyashiKaibutsu]

So, I'm planning on setting up a webserver on my computer just to muck around with it and wondering what software I should go with. At work, I do all C#/asp.net/MS SQL Server, but I'm thinking of trying to use apache/php/my sql server since it seems popular and free (don't know how limiting MS Web Express is). Is it going to be rough transitioning? Good idea? Any better ones?

 

[velvetpants]

Apache is the industry standard, no reason not to use it.
PHP and Mysql though, they are the most popular within the web dev scene, but incredibly awkward to
work with when doing anything more then a simple website with some simple scripting imo.
Apache can work with many other languages. Ruby and python are getting widely used now with the Ruby on rails and Django / Pylons frameworks.
You can use any dbms you want with these, apache doesn't care, I like postgresql but that's just like my opinion man.

I suggest you get some unix in your blood as that makes this all much easier in the end.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I suggest you get some unix in your blood as that makes this all much easier in the end.

Yea, I was thinking about that too, but I only have one computer right now and not going to dual boot for this.

I was planning on writing something semi-complicated (either a forum or journaling type thing from scratch) just so I'd have something to put effort into. So I should probably look into python or ruby. The tiny amounts of work I've done in those I didn't care for them much, but I'll give them a second look.

Most of the coding I've done has either been in java (what my college taught/what our mainframe interfacing program is written in) or c#/VB(old pages we're rewriting).

 

[velvetpants]

Yea, I was thinking about that too, but I only have one computer right now and not going to dual boot for this.

You could run a light debian install without a gui in a virtual machine. It takes less ram then your web browser.
That would do just fine as a 'mucking around' server.
It's going to make it much easier to set up and maintain as this stuff is all made originally with a POSIX platform in mind.

It might be good to get familiar with the basics of these languages before diving into the web frameworks, as python and ruby, both dynamic, interpreted languages, do things a lot differently from the ones you mentioned.

 

[Markbnj]

Is it going to be rough transitioning?

Everything about it beyond the fact that it handles GET and POST is completely different, but other than that, no.

It's good to stretch yourself, though. I have a LAMP stack running in my home office that I use to mess around with MySQL, php, and python. Since I have a Wordpress blog I have been able to use it to experiment with template changes and that sort of thing. I've also used it to write some data transformation stuff in Java for a client. The cool thing is that it will run on the worst hardware you can scrape up. I have the whole thing including the database on a Pentium 4 with 1 gig of ram.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Thanks for the info. Giving me good ideas on what to start looking at.

 

[Broheim]

lighttp is a personal favorite of mine, there's also nginx.

if this is just a for fun project, I'd go with something awesome and try out node.js and mongodb or something new and exciting like that.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

lighttp is a personal favorite of mine, there's also nginx.

if this is just a for fun project, I'd go with something awesome and try out node.js and mongodb or something new and exciting like that.

I kind of want it to be applicable to looking for a job if/when I get out of the air force so I don't want to do anything too crazy.

 

[KB]

If you want to stick with .Net, Mono has support for the ASP.Net stack on Apache and many other web servers.

http://www.mono-project.com/ASP.NET

 

[DaveSimmons]

A single-download package with Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl to run on Windows (our linux, OS X) = XAMPP:

http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

 

[Ka0t1x]

Lamp Enviro on a Linux box..

With Ubuntu on a VM:

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

You may also want to install Pear.