XAMPP

Many people know from their own experience that it’s not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl.

XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use – just download, extract and start.

At the moment there are four XAMPP distributions:

XAMPP for Linux

The distribution for Linux systems (tested for SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and Debian) contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, Perl, ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, GD, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, gdbm, zlib, expat, Sablotron, libxml, Ming, Webalizer, pdf class, ncurses, mod_perl, FreeTDS, gettext, mcrypt, mhash, eAccelerator, SQLite and IMAP C-Client.

XAMPP for Windows

The distribution for Windows 98, NT, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista. This version contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP + PEAR, Perl, mod_php, mod_perl, mod_ssl, OpenSSL, phpMyAdmin, Webalizer, Mercury Mail Transport System for Win32 and NetWare Systems v3.32, Ming, JpGraph, FileZilla FTP Server, mcrypt, eAccelerator, SQLite, and WEB-DAV + mod_auth_mysql.

XAMPP for Mac OS X

The distribution for Mac OS X contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, SQLite, Perl, ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, GD, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, zlib, Ming, Webalizer, mod_perl, eAccelerator, phpSQLiteAdmin.

WARNING: This version of XAMPP is still in the first steps of development. Use at you own risk!

XAMPP for Solaris

The distribution for Solaris (developed and tested with Solaris 8, tested with Solaris 9) contains: Apache, MySQL, PHP & PEAR, Perl, ProFTPD, phpMyAdmin, OpenSSL, Freetype2, libjpeg, libpng, zlib, expat, Ming, Webalizer, pdf class.

WARNING: This version of XAMPP is still in the first steps of development. Use at you own risk!

XAMPP is free of charge

We don’t like overpriced commercial software and XAMPP is our attempt to do something that shows free software doesn’t have to be bad.

XAMPP installs easily under Linux: Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl optimally put together. (Linux screenshot of PHP/Ming demo)

Easy installation and deinstallation To install XAMPP you only need to download and extract XAMPP, that’s all. There are no changes to the Windows registry (not true if you use the Windows installer version of XAMPP) and it’s not necessary to edit any configuration files. It couldn’t be easier!To check that XAMPP is working some sample programs are included, there is a small CD collection program (written in PHP using MySQL) and a small guest book software (written in Perl) and several other demonstration utilities. If you decide that XAMPP isn’t needed any more just delete the XAMPP directory and it’s completely removed from your system.

However if you use the Windows installer version of XAMPP it’s recommended to use the uninstall feature. As every installer the installer will make registry entries to remember the install.

The philosophy

The philosophy behind XAMPP is to build an easy to install distribution for developers to get into the world of Apache. To make it convenient for developers XAMPP is configured with all features turned on.

The default configuration is not good from a securtiy point of view and it’s not secure enough for a production environment – please don’t use XAMPP in such environment.

Since LAMPP 0.9.5 you can make your XAMPP installation secure by calling »/opt/lampp/lampp security«.

The license

XAMPP is a compilation of free software (comparable to a Linux distribution), it’s free of charge and it’s free to copy under the terms of the GNU General Public License. But it is only the compilation of XAMPP that is published under GPL. Please check every single license of the contained products to get an overview of what is, and what isn’t, allowed.

 

In the case of commercial use please take a look at the product licenses (especially MySQL), from the XAMPP point of view commercial use is also free.

The warranty

»This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.« (See the GNU General Public License for more details.)

XAMPP Download Statistics

Since some month (today is the 4th of july 2003) the Source Forge statistics don’t work correctly any more and showing only extremely less download counts.

Because of this I started to count the downloads by myself.

Article By: apachefriends.org