“Linux administrators can choose from numerous HTTP servers,
database servers, programming languages, and administrative tools
for creating web servers on Linux. Among the most prevalent,
however, is the so- called LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP)
configuration. LAMP is great way to run a web site: It’s fast,
reliable, efficient, and flexible. It can also, however, be
daunting to set up and manage for those not intimately familiar
with Linux configurations. Just installing the pieces of the LAMP
puzzle involves anything from a few RPMs (if you do it from
binaries) to multiple source builds (if you prefer to roll your
own). Configuration often consists of editing text-based files and
restarting daemons — not a problem if you’re a Linux wiz, but
intimidating if you are not. Perhaps most difficult is getting
secure (SSL-based) web hosting to work, a task that can try the
patience of anyone who is not a cryptography guru.”
“A number of companies have taken on the task of automating the
task of building and managing Linux web servers, among them
NuSphere Corporation with their “NuSphere MySQL” product. NuSphere
claims the installation process works on Windows 95/98/NT4/2000,
Solaris 2.6 and 2.7, and Red Hat Linux 6.2 and 7.0. It turns out
that it also works on Caldera eDesktop 2.4, though with a few
caveats as you will see later. To make a long story short, NuSphere
is an extremely easy way to build a fairly comprehensive Apache
server with all the bells and whistles.”
“Up until now, I had always built Apache, MySQL, and PHP from
source tarballs. This isn’t too difficult except that there are
some odd interactions between Apache and PHP (you have to
./configure Apache, then build PHP through, then build Apache).
With NuSphere there are four ways to install, and three of them
don’t involve building from source. You can run NuSphere’s
installation program locally, you can run it remotely using a web
browser, or you can install the components manually from the
provided RPMs. Last, but not least, you get the source tarballs on
the CDROM and so you can install that way.”