Website Design Using Open Source Platforms

The web today is a hugely diverse environment. Much of this diversity and exponential growth is underpinned by software that has been developed by the open source community and is available free of charge in many cases. Take the website design industry. The vast majority of web servers house a Linux platform running Apache server and a MySql database. Web designers can be very grateful for having an alternative to the Microsoft platform, which had higher costs associated with its use especially in the earlier days as many may remember.

People contributing to open source coding projects, distributed through sites like sourcecode.net are driving change online by enabling developers and end users to keep costs down and provide effective solutions for their clients. In the real world, business only adopts cost effective models, which is one reason why the Windows server model has lost favour amongst web developers. Many online businesses owe a huge debt of gratitude to the open source community, without whom their business may not exist. A web developer writing php server code for his clients may be using a pc running Windows but his code runs best on a Linux box. A MySql database stores his client’s data securely while Apache serves the code effortlessly.
The developer may also use one of the many javascript libraries like for example to spice up his web pages. They can also avail of one of the many freely given plug-in’s developed by talented javascript programmers that save hours of custom coding.

Many big business websites depend on and trust open source software for their success. Google, Yahoo and YouTube all use MySql as their data server. The Facebook website is developed using php coding at its core. Yahoo and Wikipedia also make use of php a huge vote of trust in open source code. These days most small business website design is also based around the Apache, MySql, Linux combination.

In many countries a Linux qualification now commands a higher wage than its Windows equivalent. Linux in its many flavours has truly come of age, running commonly now as an operating system on many net books and other small devices requiring a light efficient OS capable of a diverse range of tasks with a low processor power requirement. Though it has yet to break through into the mainstream consumer pc market many believe that in time this will also happen. Bringing higher security and a stable platform.

It can finally be said, the day of Linux and open source software in general has truly arrived.