H.B.Mallikarjuna: LAMP(Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) in libraries

We know open access, open source software, and open standards concepts have been increasing demand in library and information science field. Advantages include lower costs, greater accessibility, customization of open source tools and better prospects for long-term preservation of digital information. Most open source softwares tools based on LAMP.

What is LAMP?

In the early 2000, the open source community coined the term LAMP. LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (‘P’ can also refer to Perl/Python), an open source web development platform that uses Linux as the OS, Apache as the web server, MySQL as the RDBMS and PHP as the scripting language.

Why should we care about LAMP in libraries?

The widely used library tools like DSpace, MyLibrary, Koha, emilda, Fedora,MyCore, etc ., tools are based on LAMP. If want customize these tools, then your first goal is know about LAMP.

Advantages:

General available for free of cost
No need additional licenses for additional user or client
Lower implementation and support cost.
Customization: would like a few added features you can add these features yourself.

LINUX

Linus Torvalds, a student of the University of Helsinki in Finland, Created Linux in the year 1991.after long journey and further elaborated by a number of developers throughout the world Linux (lee'nuhks/ or /li'nuks/,_not_/li:'nuhks) is a freely available multitasking and multi-user operating system. From the outset, Linux was placed under General Public License (GPL). The system can be distributed, used and expanded free of charge. In this way, developers have access to all the source codes, thus being able to integrate new functions easily or to find and eliminate programming bugs quickly. Linux slowly but steadily (like the Penguin!)has made tremendous improvement, entered into Desktop world and also enterprise computing world.

Variants:

Caldera Linux
Corel Linux
Debian Linux
Kondara Linux
Red Hat Linux
Mandrake Linux
Slackware Linux
SuSE Linux
Turbolinux
Vector Linux
HP-UX,
AIX,
IRIX,
OpenBSD,
FreeBSD

APACHE:

NCSA(National Center for Supercomputer Applications). This server was freely available, came with source code and was licensed under a open modification.Today apache market more than 60%. Market share for Top servers Across All Domains August 1995- September 2006 (Source netcraft)

MySQL

MySQL is a Open Source Software relational database management system that uses SQL. MySQL (pronounced "my ess cue el") that uses Structured Query Language (SQL), the most popular language for adding, accessing, and processing data in a database. Because it is open source, anyone can download MySQL and tailor it to their needs in accordance with the general public license.It is extremely fast and easy to customize, due to its architecture.available for many platforms, including Windows, Unix/Linux and Mac OS X.

PHP

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language.PHP (recursive acronym for "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor") is a widely-used Open Source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP: 19,491,324 Domains, 1,313,977 IP Addresses

Source: Netcraft

PHP Usage for Sep 2006