WAMP vs Windows IIS
WAMP, is very easy to install. So don’t let the WAMP server terminology discourage you. The most popular WAMP package installer and administrator is WampServer, from wampserver.com. I didn’t write a tutorial on how to install it, because my 15 year old daughter can install it and have a web site up and running in less than 5 minutes. Rather, I’ll explain the importance of running an open source WAMP vs. Windows propriety IIS (Internet Information Services).
What is WAMP?
WampServer does not impose any restrictions, so you can own multiple web sites, on a Windows (the first letter in WAMP) system , like Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server, etc… You can run a web site with one or two pages. Or it can be as robust and powerful as a fortune 500 dynamic web site. WAMP is essentially a stack of applications, of which you can easily configure and administer through an installer like WampServer. WAMP, is based on Apache (the second letter in WAMP) which is and has been the global industry leader in web service technologies, since the internet was first exploited. WAMP, consists of all the most popular and essential applications needed to run a dynamic or a static web site. A dynamic web site is simply defined as a web site that changes due to visitor, owner, and/or other interaction. In contrary to a static site, which ‘essentially’ does not change, unless the owner writes new content.
WAMP packages, also include MySQL (the third letter in WAMP), which together with PHP (the fourth letter in WAMP), gives you the power to create a fully enriched dynamic site like Facebook, YouTube, etc… Although, you can run a clone of Facebook on WAMP, you would need serious hardware and support to serve up that many request. But, the principles are the same; Apache for the web service; a database for storing data; PHP to request that data and hand it back to Apache. Apache than displays the web page to the visitor.
WIMP and WAMP
Microsoft Windows IIS is the competitor to Apache, thus Microsoft does not offer a packaged form of WAMP. If Microsoft, were to come up with their own version of WAMP, it would be the same as the acronym WIMP, which would more than likely stand for Windows, IIS, Microsoft SQL, and PHP. Microsoft has it’s own competitor version of a SQL database application, it’s called Microsoft SQL. The only application, Microsoft could not incorporate into their business name is PHP, because PHP is a scripting language, just like C++ is a programming language. Windows is propriety, which means (for the sake of this article), to continue Windows support, any upgrades and/or core enhancements, will need to be derived from Microsoft and/or Microsoft partners. IIS, does impose limitations dependant on the version of operating system, i.e. Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server, etc… With IIS, you can create dynamic and static sites. Although, you can run a dynamic site without MySQL and PHP, it would be a very cumbersome web application with limitations. Thus, some form of a database, weather it be MySQL or Microsoft SQL and some form of dynamic scripting language such as PHP or Ruby (other than HTML) is needed to run a scalable dynamic web application.
To understand WAMP, you have to understand the history. As you probably already know, Linux, Mac, and Microsoft are all competitors. They are also, competitors in the sense they are all based on different or slightly different software codes, such that of Linux and Mac. Linux derived from Unix, which is also the core codes from which Mac, Solaris, and many server or desktop OS derived from. There are many forms of Linux, they are called distributions (flavors). Ubuntu is a Linux distribution and is a popular alternative to Windows. The WAMP acronym, essentially derived from the LAMP acronym, which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. WAMP came about, because of the high demand to implement these popular open source applications on a Windows operating system.
Why WAMP?
WAMP as previously discussed comes packaged with Apache. Most popular turn key, open source web applications for ecommerce, such as Magento and OSCommerce are built on and tested for Apache and not IIS. Same goes for CMS (Content Management System) open source web applications such as Drupal, Joomla, and MediaWiki. Wikipedia.org is based on MediaWiki. And, the same goes for most popular open source blog or forum web applications, such as WordPress, phpBB, and Movable Type. This website, Webdevster.com is based on WordPress. Although you can run these open source web applications on IIS, they require modifications, which are not supported by most open source web application.
Now that you have a better understanding of WAMP. I will explain more advantages of WAMP over IIS.
Bullet Points :
- WAMP installer packages are Turn Key.
- WAMP installer packages such as WampServer are easier to install and configure, than having to install and configure separate packages on IIS.
- If you decide in the future to run a dynamic site, WampServer or most WAMP packages for Windows come complete with all the essentials needed to run a dynamic web site.
- With IIS, you would need to install additional packages to get the similar functionalities you get in WAMP.
- Most popular open box, ecommerce, CMS, and blog web applications are tested on and built for Apache.
- If you are not familiar with a Linux operating system, than WAMP would be the logical choice.
- Most Apache modules are included with Apache and most modules are open source, contrary to IIS.
- Open source means proven software with world wide community support. Take Google for instance, some there infrastructure is built on Open Source applications as well as Microsoft applications.
- You will receive far more community support on WAMP, than you would on IIS for Open Source Web Applications.
- WampServer and included applications are free.
