The choice for the server platform was the so-called LAMP platform. It is one of the most common platforms for web applications on the Internet. The LAMP platform consists of the following four components:

• Linux (operating system)
• Apache (web server)
• MySQL (database)
• PHP (scripting language)

The choice to use the LAMP platform was made for the following reasons:

• The company already had a suitable server
• Proven technology
• A good environment for creating database driven web applications

Since Apache, MySQL and PHP are available for many platforms, it is possible to transfer the application to a platform running another operating system such as another UNIX like system or Microsoft Windows. The development of the Marmalade 1.0 system was made on a laptop computer running Mac OS X, Apache, MySQL and PHP.