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I have an Ubuntu laptop that I will use as a temporary server and I want to know what web servers there are to choose from and which one that suits me the best.

I will use the server for my yet undeveloped website. I have no experience of any web server, but I do have some experience of Linux (8.04 server, Ubuntu GUI), setting up routers, editing DNS records some HTML & CSS and a bit of windows.

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What operating system(s) do run/are you comfortable with? I don't want to get into the whole my-OS-is-better-than-your-OS thing, but it can make a difference (to you). – BillP3rd Dec 17 '11 at 2:03
Not a very constructive question, especially where there's no mention of whether its static or dynamic content, or OS or... ANY webserver will serve up the content you create the same way. – Journeyman Geek Dec 17 '11 at 2:04
@JourneymanGeek this question was forced migrated to superuser and none told me. And I was a sleep when it happened So don't tell me it's a bad question because it's not form this site! Get a perspective! – Alvar Dec 17 '11 at 12:17
@Alvar I am afraid this kind of question isn't a good fit for any of the StackExchange sites as you have no truly answerable problem and no-one can say what webserver will be best for you except you yourself. Your "problem" is that you don't know what webservers there are or why one is better than the other and that kind of thing can only be fixed by time and research effort on your part. If you were having a specific problem with a webserver then we could help you but as it is there isn't much we can do as we have no idea why you want a server, what you want it to do, or future needs. – Mokubai Dec 17 '11 at 12:38
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migrated from askubuntu.com Dec 17 '11 at 1:53

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closed as not constructive by Journeyman Geek, studiohack♦ Dec 17 '11 at 2:05

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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

Apache is the most widely-used web server, and it's reliable, robust, reasonably performant, and there's a large community of users with knowledge and the ability to help you should you run into trouble.

Read more about Apache here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server

I'd say Apache is the "de facto" standard for serving HTTP on Unix servers. Start there and if, somewhere down the line, you start running against some of Apache's shortcomings, you'll probably have learned enough to choose a different web server by yourself.

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up vote 2 down vote

Why would Apache be recommended as the one to use? Apache is the most widely used Web browser. It is very flexible, and pretty much any Web application that isn't exclusively dependent upon Microsoft's IIS can use Apache as its basis; most Web applications assume Apache as a default. It is well-supported on Linux, and free documentation is readily available. It is a key part of the LAMP stack, and widely considered the most important single open source software application.

So, it's a good choice in general, and gaining experience with Apache is a good idea.

There are other Web servers available for Linux and present in the Ubuntu repositories -- nginx, for instance, is gaining in popularity.

But I think the real question is what you want your Website to do. If it's a simple static Webpage, without any CGI scripting or other dynamic functionality, you could simply use your file system as a Webserver: i.e., put index.html at /home/alvar/website, and view it from any browser on your computer using "Open file" or the equivalent.

If your Website is dynamic, Apache really is your best bet. Other Web servers are generally modelled upon it anyway.

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