Yes and…no?
A serveroften refers a piece of (virtual) hardware, that has some software running that serves content or services to you, usually over the network/internet. It also often means that it’s running and accessible 24/7.It can also refer to a piece of software that serves those services/content that you can install anywhere. A game server e.g. might be provided by the game publisher for online play, but you could also be able to connect to a private server that’s ran by you or your friend (e.g. Minecraft allows that) or that only runs on your PC for local network play. Webserver fall into this meaning - they are just a piece of software that speak the protocols use on the internet and serve you webpages. In theory you can run them anywhere.
That’s a very enlightening reply. :))
Server is a general term. Webservers are a subset. We have video camera surveillance servers, telephone servers, internal document servers, web servers. They’re all servers. And webservers are one variant of it.
Even what we watch on the TV are servers.
A server is a fantastic concept per se.
Yeah, I skipped the more ambiguous ones. Netflix, Amazon, Youtube etc will distribute their content via the web. So they’re kinda webservers. Though the infrastructure which feeds in cable TV aren’t. It’s complicated.
Do you realise that the market has also become one huge server ?
What do you mean by that? Centralization of the internet? And an uptake in capitalism, to a degree that it’s now a handful of companies and providers who do the lion’s share of everything? Sure, that’s been happening since 2010 or so, plus minus a few years.
It’s not one huge server, though. They’ll have datacenters all across the globe.Centralisation of the internet is another topic altogether, and a very interesting one.
Here’s what l mean : https://cafe.coffee-break.cc/c/nostupidquestions/p/41334/the-market-is-turning-into-a-giant-server
I’d argue that web server generally refers to HTTP(S) servers more broadly regardless of whether they’re accessible on the web, a local network or even just the local interface.
What’s local interface in this particular context ?
In some ways it’s like saying that an automobile and a car are different things.
I don’t realise the difference between these two either.
Trucks aren’t cars, but they are automobiles
Does this fit within the broad category if we stretch the idea ?
Yup, no stretching required, that is also an automobile but not a car.
All cars are automobiles, but not all automobiles are cars.
Another analog to the original is to say “a bank account and a checking account are different things”. While a checking account is a kind of bank account, not all bank accounts are checking accounts.
Your (Windows) PC is also a server, as Microsoft included SMB (Server Message Block) and Share Services in the Windows workstation product.
Mapping/connecting to a share on another computer is using that machine as a server.
Linux machines can do this too, it’s just not a default thing like with Windows.
That automatically connects us to something, of which we don’t want to become a part ?
Just to muddy the water even further…
A web server frequently runs on a server, but could also run on a workstation, a phone, and many other devices. Said devices could be either physical or virtual.
