LAMP is an acronym for a solution stack of free, open source software, referring to the first letters of Linux (operating system), Apache HTTP Server, MySQL (database software) and PHP (or sometimes Perl or Python), principal components to build a viable general purpose web server.[1]
The GNU project is advocating people to use the term "GLAMP" since what is known as "Linux" is known to GNU as the GNU/Linux system.[2]
The exact combination of software included in a LAMP package may vary, especially with respect to the web scripting software, as PHP may be replaced or supplemented by Perl and/or Python.[3] Similar terms exist for essentially the same software suite (AMP) running on other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows (WAMP), Mac OS (MAMP), Solaris (SAMP), iSeries (iAMP), or OpenBSD (OAMP).
Though the original authors of these programs did not design them all to work specifically with each other, the development philosophy and tool sets are shared and were developed in close conjunction. The software combination has become popular because it is free of cost, open-source, and therefore easily adaptable, and because of the ubiquity of its components which are bundled with most current Linux distributions.
When used together, they form a solution stack of technologies that support application servers.
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According to its proponents, the LAMP stack offers a great number of advantages for developers:
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system. A major emphasis of Linux development is security, which makes it an appealing choice for a web-server application. Like the other LAMP components, Linux is free open-source software which means the source code is available for the operating system, which can be edited according to specific needs. Also, because Linux-based operating systems are Unix-like, a Linux server is more natively-compatible with other server-oriented platforms, such as Solaris and BSD, than non-Unix-like systems like Microsoft Windows.
Apache is an open source web server, the most popular in use.[5]
MySQL is a multithreaded, multi-user, SQL database management system (DBMS) now owned by Oracle Corporation with more than eleven million installations.[6] Alternatives at this level of the stack do also exist, for example by using PostgreSQL (LAPP) [7]
MySQL has been owned by Oracle Corporation since January 27, 2010 through the purchase of Sun Microsystems.[8][9] Sun had acquired MySQL originally on February 26, 2008.
PHP is a reflective programming language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. PHP is used mainly in server-side application software. Perl and Python can be used similarly.
With the growing use of LAMP, variations and retronyms appeared for other combinations of operating system, web server, database, and software language.
The equivalent installation on a Microsoft Windows operating system is known as WAMP with an alternative (running IIS in place of Apache) called WIMP.
The equivalent installation on a Macintosh operating system is known as MAMP.
The equivalent installation on a Solaris operating system is known as SAMP.
The equivalent installation on a FreeBSD operating system is known as FAMP.
The equivalent installation on a iSeries operating system is known as iAMP.
A version where Apache has been replaced with the more lightweight web server NGINX is known as LEMP.[10]
A version where MySQL has been replaced by PostgresSQL is called LAPP.
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