PHP & MySQL® Web Development All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies®

1.4. Setting Up Your Local Computer for Development

To use your local computer to develop your Web site, you must install a Web server, PHP, and MySQL. PHP and MySQL are free to download and use.

1.4.1. Installing the Web server

After you set up the computer, you need to install a Web server. Your first step is deciding which Web server to install. The answer is almost always Apache. Apache offers the following advantages:

• It's free. What else do we need to say?

• It runs on a variety of operating systems. Apache runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, FreeBSD, and most varieties of Unix.

• It's popular. Approximately 60 percent of Web sites on the Internet use Apache, according to surveys at http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html and www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/. This wouldn't be true if it didn't work well. Also, this means that a large group of users can provide help.

• It's reliable. When Apache is up and running, it should run as long as your computer runs. Emergency problems with Apache are rare.

• It's customizable. The open source license allows programmers to modify the Apache software, adding or modifying modules as needed to fit their own environment.

• It's secure. You can find free software that runs with Apache to make it into an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) server. Security is an essential issue if you're using the site for e-commerce.

Apache is automatically installed when you install most Linux distributions. All recent Macs come with Apache installed. However, ...