How to build the Apache of your dreams

Apache began as a series of patches the NCSA‘s httpd. After httpd’s lead developer left NCSA and active development of httpd began to stagnate, programmers from around the world found they needed a central repository to maintain the body of code and patches that had accumulated. A group of these webmasters banded together, and, with machines and bandwidth donated by HotWired, set up an informal coalition to direct the the development of this new server. Dubbed Apache (“a patchy server”), it quickly became the most popular server on the Net after it’s birth in April 1995, at version 0.6.5.