Another aspect new to my server upgrade is the availability of php and MySQL. I've wanted to delve into these technologies for years, but now they are at hand and became a necessity for migration of my web sites.
Wow, turns out php (
http://php.net/ ) is not only really cool, but really easy to learn! That is, if you are already developing web sites. php is basically a "flavor" of server side includes. php code executes on the server before the page is sent to the user's browser. Not only could I replace all of my previous server's SSI's, but I was able to replace many JavaScript scripts in my previous code... code which has to download to the user's browser and then execute... often with compatibility concerns. php is sweet!
MySQL, as I had expected, has a learning curve. It's not a difficult language. It's just tough to find a good starting point! So I went out and purchased "php and MySQL for Dummies"... you know, the yellow books!!! A quick look at the bookstore revealed that the sample projects had code close enough that I could cannibalize... and put off the real learning until later! All of my site's page counters are maintained in MySQL and I am experimenting with a forum application that stores its data in the MySQL server.
I wish I had done this sooner... and am glad that Leopard Server spurred me to do it now!