I'd like to know whether JSP works on the Linux platform? If so, are there any dependencies; additional software to install?

Can I have ONE DEDICATED box to support ALL the following databases:
- mySQL
- MS Access
- MS SQL
- Oracle 9i
or do I need a box for each?

Thanks!

JSP works on Linux just fine. You will need a servlet container to use it though. I have used Tomcat before now (http://jakarta.apache.org). Tomcat is free, but there are better ones out there, but they cost.

You also need the Java SDK installed. There are plenty of instructions around on how to install Tomcat on the net. Tomcat can also be either run standalone or integrated into Apache.

Out of that list, MS Access and MS SQL would have to be run on a Microsoft Windows server as they are not available for Linux. I assume you would be able to run MySQL and Oracle on the same box. But you would need at least 2 boxes: one Linux, one Windows.

Hope this helps.