Hey guys, I just found an old pc that I want to turn into a web server. What software could I use to make it into a server. I know HTML, CSS, Java script in the learning process now. I do not know much about sql or server side languages. I know Java so it wouldnt be a huge jump. I would like some software though that could get me started and could allow me to change it down the road when I do get to that?
Well do you want to pay for microsoft licences.
or do you want to run a linux server.(recommended) http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/how-to-set-up-a-safe-and-secure-web-server/2/
What you want is a L.A.M.P server; Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. You can do this with any of the main Linux distros or go for Turnkey LAMP server, or stack as they call it.
(64bit)
Link: https://www.turnkeylinux.org/lampstack
If your golden oldie PC is 32bit.
Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/turnkeylinux/files/iso/turnkey-lamp-12.1-squeeze-i386.iso/download
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I followed this tutorial recently, it worked out pretty well. It was a little wonky getting GRUB installed right during the initial setup (the tutorial kinda skips over this). GRUB kept installing on the flash drive I was using instead of the hard drive where I installed the OS. Also, getting the server visible on the web took a little bit of research as well. But overall, following that tutorial got me going. I skipped installing PHP though, it seems like PHP has become a hated language and I wanted to work with Python server side any way.
Besides all the software to get the server running, you'll also need to look into frameworks. Wordpress is a blogging framework, Django is a Python fullstack framework (it has everything baked in, such as database integration), Flask is a Python micro framework (you have to build it up with plugins to have all the same functionality of Django), and then of course there is Ruby on Rails...I haven't messed with RoR though but it is very popular.
LAMP is the easy way if you are willing to dive in a bit more I would say Linux any will do since most is just cli compiling anyway.
Nginx
MariaDB
PHP
where Apache is surely easier to setup Nginx is more powerful and has more customization possibilities. MariaDB is 99% compatible with MySQL but is quicker and just adds features faster.
also @ninerdelta since when is PHP a hated language? the fact that many people don't know how to use it properly is not hated is just ignorance and in that context you name Wordpress which is just a trainwreck of security issues. PHP, PERL, Python, RoR, Java they all have their uses and their pro's and cons.
The fact is and which you probably get that hated language from is that the php developer pool is full of people who can make something and that's about it, yet making something GOOD is an entirely different thing and in a big pool it's harder to find the big fish.
Are you 100% sure that you do not have Apache and NGINX mixed up? As far as I know NGINX is the lighter one and Apache has more customization possibilities.
Nope. Yes Nginx is by default very very light and that is the point. You need to compile all the modules in the Nginx installation. By default Nginx basically does little more than server html pages the rest you need to add in the installation of Nginx and there are a ton of modules for Nginx many not even in the repositories of the linux distro's.
@Hakker, Jeff Atwood (of StackOverflow fame maybe you've heard of him) calls PHP server herpes. He's also the man behind Discourse, the forum technology behind this teksyndicate forum right here. What did he use? His decision came down to Python or Ruby, and he went with Ruby because one of his partners was already well established as a rails developer.
I mentioned WordPress but actually considered editing and deleting it because it isn't a framework in the sense of the others that I listed.
They I will say it bluntly Jeff Atwood is an idiot with that statement.
Before the man should have opened his mouth he should have asked the question first what PHP is. Ruby and Python were designed entirely from the opposite way than PHP. PHP is a pragmatic language designed to get the job done the easiest and shortest way. PHP is designed as a solution for a problem not as a language. That part came much much later with the result of a lot of legacy stuff.
Let me know how stuff works out when you need to get stuff done fast, because then 90% run to PHP because it gets the stuff done and done fast and then they clean up the stuff they create (if and when possible). And that is just the negative part of it most stuff isn't done cleanly and many projects don't go beyond the state of mediocre hence the hatred for it.
This is not a language fault it is still the users (who write it) fault. Yes there still are weird functions but every language has that but you mostly need to look in the pool of people who write stuff and there you will find a lot of bad programmers in lake PHP because just of what it's designed to do. Solve problems simple and easy. That's just the reason why I do not and never will recommend PHP as a starting language to learn. Yes it gets the job done but you will not learn to write proper code from it unless you really challenge yourself to do so which in 95% of the time is a no.
Welp, as all conversations about programming languages go, you have your opinion, and I have mine. It's up to the new coder to choose his path forward. At least he should know that PHP isn't the only option.
True it's just that some languages are easier to learn than others, but every language is in the end hard to master.