Quite a few Linux applications are specifically created for use with the Apache web server, the MySQL database, and the PHP scripting language. This software stack, this particular combination of Linux with Apache, MySQL and PHP is so popular that is known by the acronym LAMP. Well, sometimes the P stands for Python or Perl.
One way to run these application on a Windows system is to download some ready-made LAMP image inside Virtual PC, but that is not really running them on Windows.
Many of these applications do not necessarily need Linux. They will run just fine on Windows, but still expect the Apache web server, the MySQL database, and the PHP scripting language. This less popular solution stack of Windows with Apache, MySQL and PHP is known as WAMP.
Apache, MySQL and PHP are quite popular in the Linux world, but not in the Windows world. Few Windows systems have any of these installed. Windows comes with Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) and you can often use ISS instead of Apache - if you don't mind the acronym WIMP.
The most obvious way to get Apache, MySQL and PHP onto your Windows system is download and install all three separately, and if you are really serious about using a WAMP solution stack, you should probably do so.
A faster way to get WAMP up and running is to install a WAMP software bundle that installs all you need in one go, and lets you uninstall all of it one go as well. There are quite a few such bundles, and they contain various extras. Wikipedia has an entire page comparing WAMP bundles features.
The next article discusses WampServer, one of these software bundles.
The linux.org domain seems to have disappeared early in February of 2011. The broken link has been removed.
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