Short for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP, an open-source Web development
platform, also called a Web stack, that uses Linux as the
operating system,
Apache as the Web server,
MySQL as the RDBMS and
PHP as the object-oriented
scripting language. Perl or Python is often substituted for PHP.
The key to the idea behind LAMP, a term originally coined by Michael Kunze in
the German magazine c't in 1998, is the use of these items together. Although
not actually designed to work together, these open source
software alternatives
are readily and freely available as each of the components in the LAMP stack is
an example of Free or Open Source Software (FOSS).
LAMP has become a de facto development standard. Today, the products that make
up the LAMP stack are included by default in nearly all Linux distributions, and
together they make a powerful web application platform.
The original LAMP acronym has spawned a number of other, related acronyms that
capitalize on the main focus of the original combination of technologies to
provide feature rich Web sites. Some of these related Web stacks include
LAPP, MAMP, and
BAMP.
Learn more about Open Source in Webopedia's "Did You Know...?" section.
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