We now have a fully functioning web server and can now use this server to experiment with and learn any number of web development technologies. It didn't take terribly long and we breathed some life back into an old machine that was just gathering dust. Overall, we accomplished our goals and did it for free!
You should now have all the tools at your disposal to start learning web development. You could continue to enhance the server with any number of configurations and support for new languages, such as Ruby. You can continue to pursue free open source technologies and learn in a risk-free environment. You own the system and it isn't accesible to the outsid eworld, so you can experiment and test with it to your heart's content. Don't be afraid to try new things. The more things you try, the more you will learn!
ConclusionWe completed our goal of creating a simple web server using entirely free software. We accomplished this goal by installing Debian Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Not only did we create our server for free, but also we own and run it ourselves, meaning we have no monthly hosting or maintenance costs to pay. Combining the efforts of this article with the countless free online articles and tutorials for learning web development technologies, you could become a master web developer for no cost at all!
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