On Sat, 2002-04-06 at 20:59, Terry Houle wrote:
> Another dumb question does that mean it has to run on a server? 

Servers, as you are thinking of them, are essentially computers that are
configured in such a way as to be good at serving to lots of clients. A
computer, however, becomes a server if it serves. A more accurate way to
think of it is whether a program, or a process, is a server. 

A regular desktop can be a server though. You just run software that
offers a particular service. MySQL, for example (process: mysqld) serves
data when it receives SQL queries. Apache serves web pages when it
receives HTTP requests. And so on.

In response to another question, you do not need to be running Apache to
run MySQL. They just happen to run nicely together.

Erik

-- 
"Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal
from the public purse."

Erik Mitchell
www.erikmitchell.org
mitc0185 at tc.umn.edu