Note: this article is about "LAMP" as an acronym; for the word lamp, see lighting.

LAMP is an acronym for a set of free software programs commonly used together to run dynamic Web sites:

• Linux, the operating system;
• Apache, the Web server;
• MySQL, the database management system (or database server);
• Perl, PHP, and/or Python, scripting languages.

Though these programs were not designed specifically to work with each other, the combination is popular because of its low cost and the ubiquity of its components (which are bundled with most current Linux distributions). When used in combination they represent a solution stack of technologies that facilitate electronic enterprise. Other such stacks include Java/J2EE and Microsoft's .NET architecture.

The LAMP stack has its origins in the CGI web interfaces that became popular in the early 1990's. This technology allows the user of a web browser to execute a program on the web server, and to thereby receive dynamic as well as static content. Scripting languages were used for these programs because of their ability to manipulate text streams easily and efficiently, even when they originate from disparate sources. For this reason they are often referred to as Glue Languages.

The acronym LAMP was coined by M. Kunze in an article for the German computing magazine c't in 1998. The article's intent was to show that a bundle of free software could provide a viable alternative to commercial packages. Knowing about the IT world's love of acronyms, Kunze came up with LAMP as a marketing measure to popularize the use of free software.

Amongst English speakers the term was popularized by O'Reilly and MySQL AB. Indeed, MySQL AB has since based most of its marketing efforts on the popularity of the LAMP stack. Other projects and vendors came up with variants of the term, including LAPP (substituting PostgreSQL for MySQL), WAMP (substituting Microsoft Windows for Linux), and simply AMP (omitting the operating system; this variant is propagated by Apple Computer). Some use LAMP to describe such alternative systems rather than make a new acronym, using it to denote the contrast between such systems and a unified web application development environment (such as ASP, .NET or J2EE).

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, runs software that can be characterized as a LAMP application. Wikipedia's MediaWiki software is developed primarily under Linux, using the Apache HTTP Server, with its content being stored in a MySQL database, and the program logic being implemented in PHP.

LAMP is also the name of an (apparently obsolete) movie player for Linux, the Linux Animation and Movie Player, as well as the name of MIT's Library Access to Music Project [1].

External links

• ONLamp.com, from O'Reilly & Associates
• LAMPware.org, LAMP Community Site
• Build Web Interface to Database - LAMP Tutorial
• Linuxforum.com LAMP, Element Background Info
• LAMPStack - free, easy to install LAMP distribution.
• MAMP - Macintosh, Apache, Mysql and PHP
• Uniform Server (a.k.a. miniserver) - A small package (<5MB) of Apache2, PHP, MySQL, Perl, phpMyAdmin, and other plugins.