The latest alpha release (that's number 3) of the new Apache 2.0 server was announced today by the Apache Software Foundation. Noteworthy in this release are numerous Win32 fixes and some core module improvements. This is still a developer's release, as it's alpha status should indicate.

Grimster asks: " As a new Web hosting company/ISP we're just now getting to the point of being asked for "E-commerce" and other database requiring Web sites. Currently we're running Solaris 7 on Sparc, Apache + PHP + Frontpage Extensions + SSL, and a MySQL database. The problem is, our Web designers want to use MS Access to create the databases and then deploy those onto our Web sites, both for our customers as well as for our own projects. I've been scouring the Web and all resources trying to find out what (if anything) I can do to support this approach to Web development, and so far I haven't really found anything "good" or even possible to allow this. The question is, how can my Web designers use MS Access and Frontpage to create these Web sites and my Apache server support this, without paying Microsoft Tax by being forced to build an NT + IIS + ASP Web server? I really hate the thought of having anything critical running on NT. Any hints, solutions, antecdotes, and advice on this subject will be utterly appreciated."

I was just made aware of the somewhat old, but interesting article from Information Week entitled Open Source Moves To The Mainstream. In addition to Apache, the article also refers to Perl, PHP, MySQL and Linux as Open Source products that are "luring" developers away from commercial solutions.

Anonymous Coward writes: "/. gets an honourable mention in the current issue of Apacheweek. Admitting that ApachePDA was an April Fool's joke, Apacheweek says the gag snowballed beyond expectation when the story was posted on /. and the alleged PDA took 80000 hits in two hours. The good news is that Apacheweek claims a PalmOS web server port is already in the works and Perl has already been ported. The article is at link " Also noted in ApacheWeek is the article in PC Week where it's stated that "neither PC Week Labs nor Sun recommends its (Apache's) use in high-transaction environments". Then again, PC Week themselves run Apache. Hmmmmm.

dlc writes, "Someone with too much free time and an insane streak has ported Apache to NetWare. It's still in the experimental stage, and only runs on NetWare 5.1, so don't ditch Linux yet, but still, it's pretty interesting. Only time will tell if the Apache team takes advantage of NetWare's strengths, such as NDS, in this port. The Apache site has an official page for the project. "

Lately, the number of submissions for the Apache section has been pretty small, mostly things like release information. The hope is that this section becomes a valuable resource for the Apache community, so please if you come across any information that would be interesting for Apache developers or users, please submit them. This includes things like other Web servers or technologies, HTML or scripting issues, things like that. If you feel more comfortable e-mailing me directly, that's cool too.

gavinroy was the first to write in with the news that Apache 2.0a2 has just been released. And it runs on FreeBSD! :)

ApachePDA writes, "Apache Week includes an announcement of the first alpha release of Apache ported to the Palm Pilot. The ApachePDA project is looking for developers to help port other modules. The server looks pretty neat according to the screenshots, but seems to have some serious functionality missing. " Next step: the TI-85 port. And, BTW, you might want to check the date of the page it links to. ;)

Zelphyr writes "PHP version 4 Release Candidate 1 was released to the public yesterday. Go check it out! Also, Zend Technologies released the second beta of their Zend Optimizer as well. "

BwanaZulia writes "Paul Everitt (of Digital Creations) has announced that Digital Creations will soon make ZEO (Zope Enterprise Option) a standard part of the Zope platform. In Paul's words, "ZEO turns Zope into a *distributed* transactional object system, allowing people to add processors, machines, and networks to scale their web applications." This bring Zope into a while new class of web application servers."

TheWildBanana writes, "The editors of JavaWorld asked readers to participate in their 1999 JavaWorld Readers' Choice Awards. Under the entry of Best Free Product, the Java Apache Project JServ grabbed the top spot." It's important to remember that Apache is much more than just the Web server project. :)

dlc writes,"Apache/Perl programmers will be happy to note that Doug MacEachern has released mod_perl 1.22. It's been sucessfully built with Perl 5.6.0 and Apache 1.3.12, without any problems. Doug's announcement is here." The main mod_perl page can be found at perl.apache.org.

The March 2000 Netcraft survey puts Apache at over 60% of all surveyed servers, with an impressive increase of 1.97%, or 1.4 million domains. All other servers showed a decrease in percentage, except for the mysterious mod_x-httpd-php3_script server which appears to be an Apache/PHP setup with a somewhat mangled Server: line.

It's been a week now since ApacheCon 2000 ended. There's been some discussion over the events, with the release of Apache 2.0a being the main topic of conversation. But AC2K was more than just the venue that 2.0a was announced. It was an important and noteworthy conference in it's own right. If you're curious about what happened at AC2K, read on.

At the closing ceremony at the ApacheCon 2000 conference in Orlando, FLA, the Apache Software Foundation announced the availability of an Apache 2.0 Alpha release. 2.0a offers a number of improvements over the 1.3 codebase, including support for threads and the inclusion of the Apache Portable Runtime (APR) library. 2.0a is being released in order to really kick development into high gear. Let the hacking begin!! UPDATE And how, exactly, did the ASF announce 2.0a? By posting the news on Slashdot, projected on a viewscreen in front of the closing ceremony audience. A first!

cybermalandro noted that Zend now has a Web site. The company is helping support the very popular PHP Web scripting language that powers freshmeat and Server 51 among countless other sites.

roadoi asks: "I have a Web server which is running RHLinux 6.0 and Apache 1.3.9+PHP 3.0.12 in a chrooted environment. This machine also runs an ftp server which authenticates off of the main /etc/passwd file. I want to have the ability to add system level accounts from the Web server (by running a script, etc.) and have accounts added to the main /etc/passwd file rather than the cut down /etc/passwd file lying within the chroot environment. Accounts should be active immediately so polling a database or the like at regular intervals is out of the question. Is this at all possible?" I see why polling some file would be such a bad idea, but maybe some kind of solution could be arranged where a daemon could be set to watch a port for account data. This opens up very large can of worms, however and is probably not the best option. Does anyone have any better solutions?

The PHP Group announced the release of PHP 3.0.15, which fixes some bugs and addresses some safe mode security concerns. Also available is a short patch file for PHP 4.0 Beta 4 which fixes a problem with "magic quotes" not working properly.

cybermalandro sent us an interesting interview with Rasmus Lerdorf of PHP fame. The interview talks with him about the origins of the project. Also heard are Stig Bakken, Andi Gutmans, and Zeev Suraski about working on PHP and where it's going. You can grab the MP3 from the site, as well as a QuickTime version.

The Apache Software Foundation has just announced the release of Apache 1.3.12, the latest version of the Apache Web server. The main improvements in this release are designed to handle the "cross site scripting" issues reported in http://www.cert. org/advisories/CA-2000-02.html and http://www.a pache.org/info/css-security/index.html. The full announcement goes into more detail.