Posted by frank.i.emmons@gmail.com on 01/07/07 06:35

Installing PHP+Apache+MySQL on a laptop is basically really no
different from installing it on a server. But there are some things you
need to take into consideration first:

CPU and RAM .. the more the better. Especially if you intend on running
some kind of IDE ( Dreamwaver, JEdit, etc.. ) or other desktop apps
while you run you httpd and db locally.

OS .. I would personally never host any web apps on a windows server.
My personal choice based on experience. I've run windows on a laptop
with Apache+PHP+MySQL installed... and it was 'twitcy' .. crashes were
not unheard of.

My current laptop is a Dell Inspiron 9300 running Fedora Core, maxed
out on the RAM and CPU. I went high end ( for the time I bought it )
for the purpose of being able to run a full suite of web services
locally and still not notice a significant hit on performance while
running desktop apps ( browser, email client, open office, GIMP,
multiple consoles, vim, ssh, etc... ).

Binaries vs Source. IMHO, if you want a tighter install that runs
faster and you have a *nix OS installed on your laptop, download the
source code for your DB, PHP and HTTPD, build it from source. But that
is just my opinion, since I cut my teeth with slackware over 10 years
ago and most apps were not available to me as pre-compiled binaries, so
I compiled a lot of my software from source and still do.

As always, but especially with a laptop, install a good source
repository client ( cvs, subversion, etc ) and keep a current synced
copy of any code for an application you do not want to loose checked
into your source code repository that is hosted on an external and
stable server. Take out cheap shell account the offers access to a cvs
or subversion. Once, I lost a laptop ( theft ) and with it went almost
two weeks worth of work. I was so bummed.

Hope this helps in your decision.

luvtopost@yahoo.com wrote:
> I am trying to learn PHP and was reading the book by Laura Welling and
> Luke Thompson. Obviously, PHP is already installed on a server when
> hosted by an ISP already. Is there a way to just download PHP 5 onto my
> laptop as well as MYSQL and practice learning it with coding and
> scripts, etc.? I don't have another machine to install Apache or IIS.
> Thanks.

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