[vonmoltke]

The .htaccess file is not required for anything. Anything that can be put into .htaccess can be put into httpd.conf or one of the virtual host confs.

[chime]

Agreed. However, in a shared hosting environment (which most personal sites are in), you can't edit the .conf files.

[bstamour]

Which goes right back to the original piece of advice: if you have access to the main apache config, put your changes there for performance reasons. Otherwise use .htaccess.

[oneeyedpigeon]

> Anything that can be put into .htaccess can be put into httpd.conf or one of the virtual host confs.

Also, important to note, "and not vice versa" (i.e. httpd.conf much more powerful)