I'm planning to build a CMS in PHP and MySQL, mainly for my own amusement and education. (Though who knows, I may come up with something useful and cool. Anything's possible.) I'll be asking questions about code architecture etc. later. For now, I'm more interested in development tools.
So far, all my playing with code has been done on a web server, and I've edited over FTP. I was thinking it might be quicker to use a localhost. Also, that way, I could use version control (which I've never done before).
So,
A. How do I set up a localhost server with many subdomains on an Ubuntu 9.10 computer. Is XAMPP for Linux the way to go, or should I use a standard Apache distro? (Or another webserver altogether?) For that matter, is it possible to set up more than one webserver on the same computer, and to use them for different localhost subdomains?
B. How do I set up a version control thingy covering all the code (which will be on several subdomains of localhost, and in a few shared folders)? I've read Joel Spolsky's HgInt tutorial, and it makes Mercurial look good. And simple, especially if you're working on your own.
C. Should I continue to use gEdit to write HTML/CSS/JS/PHP, or is there a better free editor out there for these languages?
A. Why would you use XAMPP when installing a LAMP stack is as easy as sudo tasksel install lamp-server? You can add as many domains to the configuration as you want using VirtualHosts for example (well theoretically anyway, in practice the amount will be limited by the available resources), you don't need multiple servers for that.
B. sudo apt-get install mercurial maybe? Of course, how to create a repository and add your projects is up to you - you should read the documentation of Mercurial.
C. Use Eclipse or NetBeans if you're planning to do any serious development work.
I'd recommend against using XAMPP, particularly if you're inexperienced as this would bypass all the package management functionality integrated in Ubuntu (so you need to manually track and apply security changes, if you need extensions not in the XAMPP distro you'll need to compile from scratch, similar for most of the external admin tools which might interact with the Apache install).
Yes - you can have lots of virtual hosts on the same webserver (rcently worked somewhere with 1200 named virtual hosts on each Apache webserver - start up took about 2 seconds rather than 0.5 - but after that you'd never have known the config files were HUGE).
If you're working on your own, then this is about the only scenario where using a distributed version control system offers no benefits over concurrent version control system, and a concurrent version control system offers no benefit over a conventional version control system. But even though it offers no advantage in the technology, it may be of benefit to you to acquire specific product skills.
What editor you use is matter of personal choice. Though personally I would list gEdit in my recommendations (I'd suggest NetBeans or Zend Studio for people who like standalone IDEs, otherwise vim, Eclipse, emacs).
A php documentor is (IMHO) a must (I like phpxref) along with some sort of testing toolkit.
HTH
C.
A: I've used Xampp for Linux successfully on Ubuntu. It's not hard to setup a normal apache installation, but I like the advantage of having a "temporary" web server where the changes are easy to reverse without affecting my normal installation.
If you want subdomains, configure apache to use virtualhosts.
B: I suggest subversion, but VCS is something of a religious issue. It doesn't matter what you use particularly. Once you've made a choice, then research the usage of a VCS.
C: Netbeans is much better than gEdit. That or Eclipse would be my preference. I use Netbeans under Ubuntu myself. A full IDE though will make development much easier than a text editor. Mostly because of code completion/integrated debugger.
I think stackoverflow.com is for programming questions. You'd want to ask those server questions on serverfault.com. Then again, they'd probably ask you to google it. Give it a try.
The editor question is cool. I use Kate, just because it comes with KDE and has syntax coloring.
Related
Want to work with 4-5 devs over internet on PHP projects.
Question: Is there any with/without central server version control system that will work with Netbeans IDE, Windows 7 and IIS?
Please: don't suggest any third-party servers like bitbucket or git-hub. I don't want to use any paid server or free ones with limited posibilities.
I want to set-up my own server. That's why asking to community
Thanks in advance.
System specs:
Currently My OS is: Windows 7 Ultimate X64 and IDE is Netbeans 7.1.
I personally prefer git. Since I work from a laptop, it allows me to have my own versions, while still reaping the benefits of a centralized repository.
The Windows part was answered in this question.
This should be the thing you're looking for, since git integrates in netbeans 7.1 REALLY well, and is easy to use and master.
cvs and svn are both easy to setup on a server and they have clients for all the platforms mentioned.
We are successfully using gitosis. gitolight might also be an option for small teams but I have not used it. An other option is to set up gitourious, but this might be overkill for you.
Said all that most of this systems are desigend to work on Linux. We are actually running gitosis on a Synology NAS, with 2 developers and about 30 projects.
This post might be interesting for you: Gitosis alternative?
You can use an ssh account and create a github repo that is shared among the members of the team. The limitations are negligible with this approach since you can setup a server yourself.
Take a look at http://www.mindfuzz.net/?p=250 for ideas.
Ok, I decided to make this an answer after all.
VisualSVN is an easy-to-use-and-setup SVN server. Simply download the free version from http://visualsvn.com/server/download and install. Then refer to http://www.visualsvn.com/server/getting-started/ for a few tips to get you started.
You need to make sure that NetBeans supports SVN. This link states it does.
If you want to run your own server, you have many options. I personally like git, and it is quite easy to set up your own server. Check out this chapter of Progit: http://progit.org/book/ch4-0.html
It talks about your options for setting up a git server and has step by step instructions.
the linux environment is natural to php,
what are the Advantages and disadvantages with run php on windows ?
Are there some limits in windows ?
what is the best (lamp/wamp) in term of performance ?
thanks
It's not so much that it is natural on Linux but the tendency was for developers to use PHP in the earlier days as the ASP on Linux. For years MS never even mentioned PHP and never gave it any support and so most development work happened in the Linux arena with the result that it is more advanced as it has simply had more development hours spent on it.
Again in the early days it was more difficult to get PHP running on ISS but apache makes it easier but then you need to install it. I rarely develop on Windows but i think the environment has changed for the better with more integration.
The emergence of packages such as XAMPP and WAMPP make installation and running a lot easier but as Karsten says not really for the production environment as they are not geared for it in performance and especially on the security level, because of this i also doubt if they are geared for performance, they are geared for ease of install and development.
Case sensitivity can be a problem if you develop in Windows and later move to Linux.
Well, there's the obvious problem of trying to compile PECL extensions on a Windows platform, and the problems associated with not having sendmail running and trying to use the mail function.
Other than that, as long as the source has been ported correctly, it should do fine.
There is an Site from Microsoft for this http://php.iis.net/
For good Performance also check out http://www.iis.net/expand/fastcgi
I can't give you performance statistics. Would guess that an extremely stripped-down version of Linux or BSD is best from that standpoint.
There are two main disadvantages of Windows. One is that you're likely to have to build some of the lesser-used extensions yourself, if you need them. (There are Windows builds of the common stuff - APC, etc. - available on the net for 32-bit, though. For 64-bit Windows... well, it's a jungle out there.) The other is that you're going to be in the minority, so expect all the things that go hand-in-hand with that. (If you run into configuration difficulty, for example, there will probably be fewer people able to help you.)
The advantage is that (especially if your favorite IDE is something like Visual Studio) you can run all your favorite Windows stuff on the machine. This is really only an advantage if this is, say, a development box - something you're going to use for other purposes as well, not just as a server.
If you are working in an windows environment, running your application/php scripts there makes a lot of sense if you want to debug locally.
I wouldn't use WAMP for production environments, because its nature is in linux imho.
XAMPP solves the sendmail issue amphetamachine is talking about by installing mercury mail.
It also comes with prebuilt xdebug, apc and memcache modules, which are for me the usual pecl compiled extensions.
An obvious problem with PHP on Windows/Apache is not being able to configure PHP APC for current versions of PHP. Hence, no way to create elegant file uploads with progress bar.
Most and main PHP developers (I mean, those that create the language) seem to work under Unix platform. Also, almost all Linux distros take care of building, packing and fixing PHP to suit their systems. And this also applies to auxiliary software like Apache. As a result:
There's always some functionality that doesn't work on Windows, e.g. strptime() or has more bugs.
Windows binaries are not optimized for your system. You can't even get 64 bit binaries unless you compile them yourself.
The MSI installers are not as polished as they should.
Installing PECL extensions is very complicate since there aren't official DLLs.
Of course, there's also Windows-only functionality in PHP, such as Windows only extensions or third-party extensions like the Microsoft SQL Server Driver for PHP, or functionality that's way easier to use under Windows, such as ODBC.
Talking about performance itself, it's difficult to make a fair comparison. The operating systems themselves have very different hardware requirements and it'd be misleading to compare optimized Unix builds with generic Windows binaries. My intuition says that the decision of choosing either platform should be based in other considerations, such as budget, required features or ease of maintenance.
There are many quirks across platforms with PHP, and I don't recommend switching between LAMP / BAMP / SAMP and WAMP / WIMP.
For one thing, permissions are completely different -> usually being a lot harder to work with in Unix/Linux (as Windows doesn't seem to care all that much about permissions as far as I have ever seen). This is a good thing, in my opinion, though (I'm relatively safety paranoid).
Here are a couple more things that differ:
http://php.net/touch (could't change windows directory modified times until 5.3)
http://php.net/flush (still can't flush or ob_flush from some win32 machines)
Both have system specific issues that were just SUPER recently worked out or haven't been fixed yet...
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers.
We don’t allow questions seeking recommendations for books, tools, software libraries, and more. You can edit the question so it can be answered with facts and citations.
Closed 6 years ago.
Improve this question
Does anybody know an ISO image of a up-to-date Linux distribution aimed at web developers with one, some or all of the following features:
LAMP stack readily set up (Readily installed Apache 2, virtual sites directory structure (hosting), PHP installed, mySQL installed)
Ruby/RoR set up for a beginner to start with
Subversion set up for multiple repositories
Firewall configured for functioning as a web server (Port 80 open, not much else)
Python and Trac installed and integrated with Apache (Multi-environment capable)
Background:
I have a powerful new workstation and would like to set up a number of virtual machines for testing, development and version control, preferably on Linux. The machines will not be exposed to the public.
I would like to save as much installation and set up work as possible - setting up everything from the above list would cost me weeks if I'd do it alone.
Bounty
I have had to put this on the shelf for the time being due to other, more pressing projects. The suggestions made are already a brilliant list; I'm putting a bounty on the question to try and gather as much input as possible, so this can be the reference question on the issue for future generations.
I will be awarding the bounty either based on popular vote or on a whim, from what looks the best solution to me.
Seriously, I think the best thing to do is create your own. Some people for example use Redmine instead of Trac. Finding a pre-configured VM with these specific installations is going to be difficult.
So, having the "create your own" as a precondition, I believe you have the following options:
Use a a "VM Aware" distro
Ubuntu Server comes to mind: it has an option to install a minimal installation specific to VMs.
Download the server ISO image, boot from it, press F4 on the first screen and select "Install a minimal virtual machine".
Less than 380MB installed footprint
Specialized server Kernel (-virtual)
Optimised for VMWare ESX, VMWare Server and KVM Intel or AMD x86 architecture
Minimum memory 128MB
No graphical environment preloaded as it is aimed at server virtual appliance
IMHO, you're going to spend at most a day configuring your VM to your tastes, not weeks. Using apt-get is going to save you some time in almost all packages in your feature list.
...and if you want even more customization, you can even try to use vmbuilder.
vmbuilder is a script that automates
the process of creating a ready to use
VM based on Ubuntu. There is no need
for a JeOS CD image. The currently
supported hypervisors are KVM, Xen and
VMware.
Use a well known distro and "strip it down"
Install a minimal Debian system and strip down some features, or create a small live image and use it.
Use Linux From Scratch (LFS) and build a system only with essential software
This is the most difficult one and you're going to spend a lot of time.
But you'll be able to have a really small distribution and understand how a Linux system really works. Understanding how everything works you can install just what is needed in your setup, and use lighter binaries like Busybox.
There's an old project called Debian From Scratch (last update is from 2006, so I don't know if it's reliable) that aims to do the same LFS does but using Debian.
(...) is a unique distribution that
allows you to install a Debian system
with almost the same level of control
as what you would get with a Linux
From Scratch installation but with the
Debian advantages (easy to update and
maintain).
You just want a Damn Small Linux out-of-box solution
Well, you can try Damn Small Linux, it's only 50mb and Debian Based and I believe it's the most famous minimal distribution (you can check more distros in this list). I just don't know how it would perform in a Web Server Development scenario.
Final advice
To all situations above, after configuring, save your VM as a default one for future use. Or better, use snapshots, each one with minor differences you may have with your installation (beware though that controlling too many snapshots may be a little cumbersome).
"I don't want to configure my own"
If for some reason you didn't like my approaches or don't have too much time to follow my advice ("create your own VM") you can check this question on ServerFault. There's a list for a bunch of appliances from different distros.
...but if you're going to test a bunch of them, to see if they fit your needs, why not just use the time spent with them creating your own?
Icing on the cake: use Vagrant to manage your vms.
Vagrant is a tool for building and distributing virtualized
development environments.
By providing automated creation and provisioning of virtual machines
using Oracle’s VirtualBox, Vagrant provides the tools to create and
configure lightweight, reproducible, and portable virtual
environments.
This means Vagrant helps you automating a lot of things you usually do when creating a new VM (these features are from the official website):
Automated virtual machine creation using Oracle’s VirtualBox
Automated provisioning of virtual environments using Chef, Puppet, or just shell scripts!
Full SSH access to created environments
Assign a static IP to your VM, accessible from your machine
Forward ports to the host machine
Shared folders allows you to continue using your own editor
Package environments into distributable boxes
Completely tear down environment when you’re done
Easily rebuild a complete environment with a single command
I would create a vm with the same configuration (well, almost the same) as my production server, so some platform problems would not appear just when deploying.
Set up a Debian or Ubuntu Server Edition. Easy to set up, and it takes one day to install/configure everything that you listed above with tutorials, even if you are beginner, and nothing is buggy.
That's a very specific list! A quick exercising of my Google-fu leads me to Noys, which has the following software pre-installed.
Apache 2.2
MySQL 5.0
MySQL Administrator
MySQL Query Browser
PHP 5.2 with some important extensions (PDO, MySQL, PEAR)
XDebug
NetBeans 6.5
Subversion with Nautilus integration
Firefox 3.0.7 with some great extensions (Firebug, Web Developer Toolbar, Greasemonkey)
gFTP
GIMP 2.6
Any distribution with a decent package manager should take care of a lot of the grunt work for you though.
Try searching in the VMWare appliances directory. Choose 'Operating Systems' and search for 'LAMP'
I don't know of one. I would suggest building your own distribution or image. If you do, please distribute it.
You may want to try turnkeylinux. They have all the images you need from LAMP stack to ROR.
Why don't you use one of the BitNami stacks depending on the specs of the project? It seems to be a waste of resources to install everything on one VM (unless you really need everything all the time).
http://bitnami.org/stack/
Personally, I would create a VM with an Ubuntu (or Debian) server install, and just apt-get the necessary packages needed for the project. If you have problems installing a full LAMP stack have a look at the tutorials on HowToForge. Installing most projects - with standard configs - is really not that hard.
BTW "Subversion setup for multiple repositories" - you can create as much repositories as you want using svnadmin, the only thing you have to do is install subversion itself (apt-get install subversion), and configure your repo's once you created them.
There is one that I know of called Excelixis 1.0 (previously Workbench linux). Check it here:-
http://excelixis.wordpress.com/excelixis-details/
It is based on Ubuntu 8.04, and the ISO developer seems to suggest that with the next Ubuntu LTS (10.04), there could be an update for it.
It has the following preinstalled:-
Development
* GCC, G77, Sun JDK, FPC, Python
* Eclipse (+ All Callisto Repository Plugins)
* NetBeans 6
* Monodevelop
* Anjuta
* Glade
* Gambas 2
* Lazarus
* wxGlade
Web Design & Development
* Apache, PHP, MySQL Servers (XAMPP)
* Kompozer
* Bluefish
* gPHPEdit
* Cssed Editor
Development Utilities
* SVN WorkBench
* Geany
* PoEdit
* HexEditor
* ManEdit
* Umbrello UML Modeler
* regExxer (advanced search & replace tool)
Graphics
* GIMP
* Inkscape
Network
* Firefox Web Browser
* Thunderbird Mail/News Client
* Filezilla FTP Client
* Transmission Bittorrent Client
* Wireshark Packet Sniffer
* Pidgin Instant Messenger
Turnkey linux is a solution ;)
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/
As I know no bounds there, I just bugged my provider. He sent me his servers apt.list and package selection (Debian Linux). Additionally I got a stripped down Apache httpd.conf, so I could set up a near-100% emulation of my actual webserver.
That's not a turnkey solution, but quite useful if you want to test deploy things. Though I used that rarely, and ooops IIRC it was on the stolen laptop..
You may want to checkout our project, BitNami You can get either individual virtual machines or installers for Trac, LAMP, MySQL, Rails, etc. The beauty of it (apart from being free) is that you can mix and match the installers via the module system and build your perfect environment (aka "stack"). The stacks are self-contained, so when you don't need them you can simply uninstall them. You can keep multiple stacks around simultaneously and they won't interfere with each other
I'm not aware of one which specifically meets these requirements, however I have experimented with PCLinux OS bootable CDs where you can extensively customize the system after starting it up (installing direct from the internet with easy to use tools) - I'm not sure if it directly supports saving the resulting image, but if you were to run it within vmware then snapshotting the system is a no-brainer.
If you wanted to create your own image (e'g' if you needed to redistribute a natively bootable image) then I'd suggest you have a look at puppy linux - which is very easy to customize.
C.
Take a look at eBox and it's features
Am not aware of whether it is available !
Actually as per the above answers, most probably it is not available. A team can be formed to do this..
The requirement has to improvised, and team can work on that, and release it as a open source..
What do you guys feel ? ( i would be happy to be a part of that team. )
You said you were looking for virtual machines so I looked around the VMWare appliances and found two you might be interested in
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/289
Trac
Python
Subversion (Client and server components)
Apache web server
PostgreSQL
MySQL
SQLite
The underlying operating system is OpenBSD.
ruby18-base-1.8.4nb1 Ruby 1.8 based release minimum package
ruby18-subversion-1.3.0nb3 Ruby bindings for Subversion
Only thing this is missing is PHP and Ruby on Rails which shouldn't be to hard to install on your own.
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/134
Apache2 (2.0.54)
PHP (4.4.0)
MySQL (4.1.12)
PostgreSQL (8.1.2-1)
phpPgAdmin (3.5.6)
Ruby 1.8.4
Ruby on Rails (1.1.2)
They both seem to contain most but not all of what your looking for.
This last link seems to have Ruby and php but I'm not sure what else. Not going to check a torrent site a work lol.
http://www.kickasstorrents.com/ubuntu-php-ruby-on-rails-django-web-development-vmware-appliance-t3040351.html
Hope this helps
How about this one?
http://lamppix.tinowagner.com/
SuseStudio.com
Build an appliance — or your own custom Linux distro — with a few mouse clicks. Customize it to your heart's content, and share it with the world!
SUSE Studio is an online Linux image
creation tool by Novell. Users can
develop their own Linux OS, software
appliance or virtual appliance, mainly
choosing which applications and
packages they want on their "custom"
Linux and how it looks. In addition,
they can choose between openSUSE, SUSE
Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux
Enterprise Desktop bases, GNOME and
KDE desktops, and a plethora of other
features. The user can create a fully
functional system with Firefox, 3D
graphics, and whatever apps he or she
can find installed. SUSE Studio is
what powered the fan-made "Chrome OS",
which was a semi-stripped-down system
loaded with the developers' version of
Google Chrome, Google web application
links, and OpenOffice.
Not exactly fitting your question, but maybe still what you were asking for:
You can create linux servers that perfectly fit your needs with a graphical user interface called PuPHPet.com. This let's you choose everything, from PHP version to mysql password, phpmyadmin, packages, etc.
The resulting config file can be used to setup a real server (see the page) within minutes and one click or create a local virtual machine with exactly these settings automatically via Vagrant (which is a technology that creates virtual machines from little config files that you create for example with puphpet.com).
I've written an extremely detailed tutorial on this.
Even if you are totally new to PuPHPet and Vagrant, you'll be able to setup professional (!) linux servers.
How to setup a (or multiple) server/LAMP-stack inside a virtual machine for local development with Vagrant and PuPHPet
Clinker
It touches every aspect of software development and they call themselves a Software Development Ecosystem.
It includes;
Repositories (Git + SVN)
Continous Integration (Jenkins)
Source Code Inspection (Sonar)
Repository Management (Nexus)
Project Management (Trac + Redmine)
Deployment Environment (Jelastic + Engine Yard + Heroku)
They have both a hosted solution and a free of charge installation package.
Use Puphet Gui tool its perfect for linux web developers with customization settings you can just select the packages ,it creates bundle on ur environment and u can just execute it .It creates virtual machine and install all the packages into this machine.
Handy:
https://puphpet.com/
In few months I start a project in PHP and I am hesitating to do like usual : develop on my Windows Vista 64bits machine. Since I know few things on Linux, I think it can be a good way to learn by working on a Linux distribution.
Do you think it's a good idea or not? I would run a VirtualBox with Ubuntu (on my Vista64bits). I was thinking to install XAMPP to be able to develop in PHP.
If you think it's a good idea, feel free to suggest me some tutorial about what I should know with Virtualizing an OS, or Linux/dev.
Update
I have build many website in PHP with Windows, the question is more about if it's a good way to start learning Linux by developing on it via a Virtual machine? I have 4 gigs rams, will it be smooth if I install Eclipse in the Virtual Machine? etc.
You should really develop on the same platform where you are going to deploy. I'm not saying it is bad to do differently, but it can save you some pain in the long run. OTOH, you might learn faster about platform differences that way. So, the main question is: do you want to have a production system running ASAP without much headache? Or, you want to spend some time and make some effort to learn how to develop cross-platform stuff?
And yes, there are differences. For example, case sensitive and case in-sensitive filenames. Then, some PHP functions use native C functions that have different implementation. For example, printf() does not produce the same amount of whitespace for some of the types. Resolution of time measurement (milliseconds vs microseconds) can be different, etc. Then, you have different ways filesystem permissions are handled. These are just some recent problems I've found that I can remember off the top of my head.
PHP should be the same on any platform - so where you develop shouldn't matter.
However, in my experience and observation,more sites running PHP are running on Linux than Windows.
Getting Apache and PHP setup on something like Ubuntu or Fedora is a cinch, and testing everything is pretty simple, too.
Also, when you go live with your site, what platform will it be running on? I prefer to do development on the platform it will be running on whenever possible.
Personally, I don't think that for local production you should be using a VM. Would you be running your IDE inside the VM too?
If you are aware enough of the pitfalls of moving between Windows and Linux environments (such as case sensitivity and permissions), you should have no problem developing on Windows and deploying on Linux.
Working on a Linux distribution is defnitely the easiest way to learn it. And setting up some servers and doing some dev work is an excellent start.
Virtualising Linux is also really easy. I've done it quite a few times and it's really obious. Also, going this way will ease you into using Linux, much better than just jumping in and finding out your wireless card is unsupported like I did :)
As for PHP development on Linux... I've done some PHP coding on Windows and on Linux and I can tell you there's very little difference between the two. I use Eclipse on both platforms and Apache &MySQL / XAMPP. The only major difference I've seen is that Linux is much more finicky about permissions and case.
PHP is not the same on all platforms, and until very recently the windows versions had problems which were not found in the Linux versions. Lots of useful features are *nix specific.
I would echo #Milan's sentiments about developing in the deployment environment. You learn a lot more about the deployment environment by doing so too.
On the VM issue, if you want all your Windows tools and your windows machine, setup a linux server in your VM (can have a GUI if you want, but you're going to mainly use it as a server). Set it up so that windows can view the apache install running in your VM and you use samba shares to access the vm's files like a drive in windows. That way, you develop in windows but are testing deploy / setup on a running linux server. While two devs at my shop run Ubuntu, a third needs to use Photoshop and various other bits of windows software all the time, so she uses this method of running a server in a VM but developing from windows.
Oh, and if you're running on Linux, don't use XAMPP! A few simple commands will have you up and running and you'll get a much better understanding of your deploy. XAMPP is fine, but it's for OS's that don't have Linux's package management.
while XAMPP works great, running Apache and PHP on Linux is a given; while on Windows it's something extra you have to do... and support. Also, most parts of the stack are far more optimised and mature for a POSIX environment. The database engine(s) performance is particularly sensitive to the available primitives.
Most OSS runs on windows, but it's a round peg whammed on a square hole.
On principle, I would advise against "learning by doing" in a real project - unless it it really small, or you have doen very similar projects before, so that the learning curve on project related issues would not be steep. In that case you may have ressources free for learning about the developing environment.
Generally I like the Linux environment better than Windows. Mainly because all the CLI tools you would need are provided and Bash beats cmd.ext any time. But with Cygwin I find even Windows a comfortable development environment.
Regarding PHP development I can't really see how it would be much different. Maybe there is some benefit in being forced to make the code more portable (things like line endings, forward slashes in filenames and such) if you use booth systems.
As a desktop or workstation there isn't much difference between the two. I find that the biggest differences lies in how you administer them, but hopefullt you have some other people doing that for you.
In my opinion you needn't to develop in a linux distribution.
Web Development can be done from any OS. I don't know, why you are programming for the web... as a professional? for your personal homepage?
I think, it's enough to get some free webspace running a PHP Server and to upload your files there... it doesn't take you much time and there are less things to manage.
a german student ;)
Use the OS your deployment server will be running, and it is highly probable to be linux. I have recently seen a deployment gone ultra bad cuz it was developed using wampserver and deployed on CentOS. With major differences in apache and PHP config. So know your deployment server and match it as closely as possible.
Try creating a development environment using VmWare Player. I have several Linux environments that I run on my Vista laptop. You could also just dual boot. I use Ubuntu, it is easy.
The side effect of developing inside a VM: more overhead and eventually the needs of additional tools to make the development more comfortable.
Often people need special tools for their development like Photoshop or some vector design tools not available on Linux. If the working copy of the project is inside the VM, it makes sense to have easy access to it. So you will setup SAMBA (which makes often problems with the login from XP) or setup SSL(SFTP)/FTP.
Also you must learn how to use networking with the VM (NAT, bridging, port forwarding).
On the other side, developing on another platform as the target can give some headache. I found myself often confused with .htaccess files for password protection, because oft the different path on Windows/Linux. If you forget to change this entries later on the production server, you have a problem...
A better solution: use the best of both worlds.
A VM eventually running later headless (no gui, more like a "remote server") with Ubuntu/Debian/FreeBSD) and only running the needed servers (Apache, MySQL, FTP, SSH...).
Eclipse or the other development tools on Windows/Mac.
5 years later: My opinion is to use the Linux solution. There are many advantages for using PHP in Linux. The primary reason is the level of help available from the community. PHP seems to be optimized for Linux environments as well.
There is also safety in numbers as an overwhelming number of sites are hosted and run with LAMP solutions. There are a wide range of frameworks and CMS' that run best on Linux with Apache2.
Make your life easier and start learning PHP straight away.
I'm fairly new to the world of versioning but would like to introduce Subversion into our small development team as we're finding that more and more we are working on the same projects/files. We primarily code in PHP on a LAMP environment (Red Hat Enterprise).
What I'm looking for are some starting points to get me up and running such as installation/configuration guides for Red Hat. I use Dreamweaver CS3 (I see that Subversion functions will be introduced in CS4) so would be willing to look at other PHP IDEs with Subversion integration, do you have any preferences? I'm open to suggestions.
It depends on what version of RHEL you are running. Setting up Subversion in general is very easy you just have to install the binaries and run svnserve or adapt the Apache configuration.
Get it: http://subversion.tigris.org/getting.html
Install it
svnadmin create --fs-type=fsfs
After that you have a repository which you can serve via apache or svnserve. I can recommend Apache because it scales better, is easier to maintain and allows you to access the repository via DAV.
Example configurations are here: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.0/ch06s04.html
Installing subversion is likely not going to be the hardest part, what's going to be the difficult part is how you access the repository. There's a variety of options (file share on the network, subversion over SSH, through an http connection). Each has their own pro's and con's. How are you currently developing? If you are all using the same webroot for instance, version control is not going to help, as you'd still be changing each others files, so you'll have to create separate sites for each developer.
As for the IDE, there's a great shell integration for Windows in the form of TortoiseSVN, which would still allow you to work with your favourite tools and still have easy access to the SVN features.
On a RHEL system, the easiest way to install subversion is by using yum:
yum install subversion
These are good for Linux + Subversion:
http://articles.slicehost.com/subversion
Plus it goes into multiple repositories, WebDAV and a lot of other things. Useful for Windows devs too as most of the info can be used in Windows too.