The term web server refers to both hardware and software, but for this guide we focus entirely on the software side: how to host a website on your Linux system using Apache, MariaDB, and WordPress.
A web server is a software program that receives and responds to client requests via the HTTP/HTTPS protocols. Its primary purpose is to display website content which, oftentimes, is in the form of text, images, and video.
A web server can either serve static or dynamic content. Static content, as the name infers, refers to content that hardly changes and is bound to remain the same. The server sends back content to the user’s browser as is.
Dynamic content is content that often changes or is constantly updated. To serve dynamic content, a web server must also work alongside a database server and server-side scripting languages.
This guide will demonstrate how to set up an Apache web server to host a website on your Linux system for free.