Remember when web stacks were simple? When the layers could be scrunched into a four-letter acronym like LAMP or LEMP or LEPP? When all you needed was cheap commodity hardware, some open-source software, and perseverance?
My first successful website, vintage 1999, was built with just a handful of layers: HTML4, CSS2, JavaScript3 and Apache 1.1, all running on a Linux 2.0 kernel. It had 38,000 pages, and after 20 years it’s still pushing them out.
But we’ve all changed since then. And oh, how our stacks have risen!
My Perfect 2020 Stack
It’s a new decade and a new generation. So it’s time for a new stack — a 2020 stack. *
What does a 2020 stack look like? Well, it’s heavily influenced by what you’re trying to do. Picking the right layers depends in large part on how much scalability you need.
My sweet spot is small websites. The ones that fit comfortably on a virtual server. The ones that don’t need load balancers or stateful data stores. The CMS niche that’s been occupied by WordPress for a long time. But not a Marie Kondo minimalist server…