The Growing Popularity of LAMP

LAMP is a proven software stack for developing and implementing multi-tiered web applications.

• Linux - operating system
• Apache - web server
• MySQL - database server
• PHP - programming language for dynamic web pages

The nice part of this stack is that it an extremely low cost solution for implementing web based solutions. This stack is also interchangeable.

• The operating system can be interchanged with Windows.
• The web server can be replaced with an application server such as JBoss.
• MySQL is also available in an Enterprise solution.
• PHP is growing in popularity for developing dynamic web pages. Other popular languages include Ruby on Rails, PERL and Java for building web applications.

LAMP or a modified version of LAMP can be an extremely strong solution for startups, Small and Medium sized Businesses (SMB) and even large organizations looking to implement web solutions with a low cost proven solution of software components.

LAMP derivatives can use Windows, different versions of Unix/Linux and JBoss instead of Apache to name a few options. Since is blog thread is focused on MySQL, MySQL will be the one constant in LAMP options.

A number of different programming environments and languages can be used to implement web-based applications for MySQL in a LAMP infrastructure. Some of the more popular ones include:

• PHP
• Perl
• Java (JSPs, Servlets, EJBs)
• AJAX
• Ruby on Rails
• Groovy
• Python
• Access

Eclipse is not mentioned in the LAMP acronym but it is a powerful IDE for developing Java applications. JDeveloper from Oracle is free and is another powerful solution for building Java applications.

Products like Toad and Navicat can also be included in this environment for interfacing with the MySQL database. Toad is available in free versions available for download.

There are a lot of interchangeable components I have just listed some of the more popular solutions.