Breaking the LAMP loop, alternative web serving methods

Lately I decided to look elsewhere than the usual "linux apache mysql php". Reading on docs makes me draw something like apache or ngingx as a load balancer front-end, the same as the backend adding lighttpd for fast streaming ofdata. This leave me more confused than before: * apache or ngingx? old but solid or new with an ongoing development?

Reverse proxy, load balancer and HTTPS front-end for Web servers

* database: mysql?postgres?sqlite?ORACLE!??

Yet Another Web Server(in erlang)