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This pages describes some of the software that servers use to provide resources to end users.
You need to read this page so that when I say 'You should install a ...' you can nod intelligently and say 'Oh yes, one of those' instead of looking puzzled and secretly trying to look it up the the idiots guide to computers that you have hidden in the top drawer.
Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.
Linux properly only refers to the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux systems are more accurately described as GNU/Linux. The GNU project provided pretty much everything else that contributes to a usable operating system.
Modern GNU/Linux systems typically also include software from other sources such as Perl and Mozilla.
Samba is a Linux/UNIX equivalent of a Windows file and print server.
For organisations with a mixture of Windows and Linux desktops, Samba (and probably NFS) allows a single server machine to provide file and print services to all desktops and allow users to share files and directories in real time.
For organisations considering moving away from outdated Novell or NT4 servers and who find the prospect of Windows2000 a little unbearable, Samba might be the answer.
To control which MS Windows users can access your Samba shared files, you might want to use an LDAP server.
An LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server is a place to store information about users. LDAP directories can be used to control access to Samba file shares, email accounts, web servers and even in-house developed applications.
An LDAP directory can provide a common source of information about users and their permissions to many resources throughout an organisation, simplifying administration and reducing the opportunity for duplication and transcription errors.
OpenLDAP is an open source implementation of an LDAP server provided with many Linux distributions however there are also commercial packages such as Sun's Directory Server. Microsoft's Active Directory Service plays a similar role to LDAP, in fact ADS provides an LDAP interface, although the logical structures of an ADS directory tend to be quite different to those on an LDAP directory.
Many open source applications have either built-in support for LDAP authentication or freely available add-ons.
Apache is the most widely used web server in the world (see the Netcraft web survey) and runs on both Linux/UNIX and Windows platforms.
As well as a highly functional web server, the Apache server is at the heart of the LAMP/WAMP programming environment (Linux or Windows / Apache / MySQL / Perl or PHP). The Apache foundation also provides the reference implementation of a Java Server Page (JSP) server through the Tomcat project.
If you need an intranet server or are thinking of hosting your own internet web server, why would you choose anything else?
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Mohandas Gandhi
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