Apache is the most popular web server available on the internet, Apache Web-Server is an open-source project meaning that the source code and all information about it is publicly available to anyone who wishes to take it. Often the code is adapted and changed from user input and submit back to the Apache Group who can update it for public releases. The software was originally designed for use on UNIX servers only as an alternative to others but is now available for Windows Operating Systems. The package is licensed under the GNU Public meaning that its operation is free on any Linux or Unix system. A survey conducted by company Netcraft in February 2008 showed that over 50% of websites use the Apache web server
Developer January 2008 Percent February 2008 Percent Change Apache 78,735,581 50.61% 80,580,183 50.93% 0.33 Microsoft 55,709,926 35.81% 56,265,527 35.56% -0.24 8,290,471 5.33% 8,169,930 5.16% -0.16 lighttpd 1,536,981 0.99% 1,565,536 0.99% 0.00 Sun 557,673 0.36% 547,510 0.35% -0.01
Source: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html
These figures show the huge popularity of the Apache server, but this is not the only web-server available as there are many others that have gained recent popularity. You can see from the figures that Microsoft dominate the market second to Apache, with over 30% of the web using their Windows Server which a study in 2007 operated by search-this.com showed that Microsoft Server was used mostly on websites that are for Fortune 500 companies in America, Microsoft operates 50% of this market and with a suprise Apache operates a small 15%, staying even with companies Sun and IBM. You can see this in the following chart:
Source: http://www.search-this.com/2007/06/27/microsoft-iis-vs-apache-who-serves-more/
In the recent months Google has added an addition 1.1million websites to the internet due to the rise of Google Blogger which has boosted their figures in the market making them now one of the most popular blogging systems available, but suggestions as to why they are less popular along with Apache toward Fortune 500 companies is because most are older companies and will have had Microsofts server systems implimented in the past and do not wish to change to a more modern and popular approach.
PostgreSQL is Object Relational Database Management System or ORDBMS, like Apache the software is Open-Source meaning that anyone can access and modify the source code without infringing copyright laws, althought this is not the only version of PostgreSQL available as their is a commercial version which can be purchased for the Red Hat Linux operating system, as PostgreSQL usually operates on Windows. The support for PostgreSQL is very wide due to the fact that it is free and commercial for anyone to use, making it popular within certain circles compared to proffessional alternatives, the main competetor for this software is MySQL.
MySQL is possibly the most popular ORDBMS used on the internet, it is also open source and by far has the most literature and support available for it, in an article by oreillynet.com there are claims that the rapid growth of MySQL can only be outdone by the rapid growth of Apache and it has outdone the PostrgreSQL even though they are equally ranged in technical features. The site also posted a comparison between the two to compare the benefits of each:
POSTGRESQL MYSQL ANSI SQL compliance Closer to ANSI SQL standard Follows some of the ANSI SQL standards Performance Slower Faster Sub-selects Yes No Transactions Yes Yes, however InnoDB table type must be used Database replication Yes Yes Foreign key support Yes No Views Yes No Stored procedures Yes No Triggers Yes No Unions Yes No Full joins Yes No Constraints Yes No Windows support Yes Yes Vacuum (cleanup) Yes No ODBC Yes Yes JDBC Yes Yes Different table types Yes
Overall there are many advantages and disadvantages to each of them but it depends on personal preferences which to use.
Resources
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue19/what-is/
http://www.faqs.org/docs/ppbook/c208.htm
http://ftp.uoi.gr/pub/databases/mysql/doc/refman/5.0/en/what-is-mysql.html
http://www.search-this.com/2007/06/27/microsoft-iis-vs-apache-who-serves-more/
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