3.1. Introduction

The web pages you see when you surf the Web (quit slacking, you!) are served up via the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) by an httpd daemon—the “d” at the end means daemon, programs that are always running in the background. [1]

[1] In some distributions, the daemon is called apache instead of httpd.

Currently, Apache is the webserver of choice, and not just for Open Source bigots. As of this writing, Apache has more than 60 percent of the active site webserver market (see www.netcraft.com/survey/). Because it is so widely used, it is widely tested, and when a bug is discovered or a new Web feature is implemented, bug fixes and updates are almost instantaneous. Apache has a BSD-type Open Source license, making it attractive ...

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