Putting Tomcat and MySQL Together

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Combining Tomcat and MySQL provides a powerful, reliable, and free platform that you can use to learn, develop, and deploy JSP applications. And, best of all, the code that you develop using this platform will run nicely using iPlanet and Oracle or WebSphere and SQL Server.

As a learning tool the two together are almost "reference implementations " of their respective protocols (JSP and SQL). As a result, you won't pick up any nasty vendor-proprietary bad habits while you're getting up to speed.

In addition, you can enjoy the knowledge that you are supporting the open-source software movement. Open -source software is code that is made freely available under one of several public licenses, frequently the GNU General Public License (GPL).

FACTS AND FICTION ABOUT THE GPL

The GNU General Public License is probably one of the most misunderstood documents in existence (with the exception of the "fan interference law" in baseball.) The basics break down to this:

1. If you place a piece of software under the GPL, anyone is free to make a copy of it in either source or executable form and give it to anyone else.

2. If you take a piece of software under the GPL and use it as a part of your product, you can't charge for that product beyond duplication costs.

Many people interpret this to mean that they can't use GPL software for commercial purposes. Nothing is farther from the truth. What you can't do is charge specifically for parts of your product that are partly or largely derived from GPL products.

You are free to use GPL code in the development of a Web site because you're not selling the site itself to a third party as a product. (Consulting companies fall into a weird quasi-space, but no one has gone after them for using GPL software to date.)

Why is it good to support this movement? There are two sides to this answer: one technical and one political. Technically, it's a good thing because open-source software tends to encourage the development of open standards such as JSP and JDBC, allowing you to choose your tools from among a larger group rather than being locked into one vendor's proprietary solution.

It's a positive thing politically because it keeps the large companies honest. WebLogic and iPlanet have to stay competitive and responsive because they know that there's a free solution out there if they aren't. And when you use open-source software, you are sending a message that your overriding concerns are features and reliability, not having a large company to sue if something goes wrong.

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