WAMP vs Virtual LAMP

[OrganizedFellow]

Hi all!

I'm no stranger to developing locally on my computer, in fact, I prefer it!

I currently have WampServer2.2 on my 64bit Win 7 Ultimate 4GB RAM. Lots of testing virtualhosts and some subdomains. For some reason, I can't get ProcessWire to work properly on subdomains (but what's not what this topic is about).

From time to time, I experiment with Linux. Just over this past Christmas I was heavily into Arch and some of its variants. Previously Linux Mint, Ubuntu, etc.

I have many application licenses on Windows that fully switching to Linux and finding alternatives will be impossible. But I do tinker in Linux from time to time throughout the year and I keep coming back to Windows simply because running Win in a VirtualBox on Linux is a little slow.

I have run into numerous tutorials/walkthroughs/guides etc. that show how to build a decent lamp-stack for web development - and I have done that numerous times. howtoforge.com has many examples!

But I wanted to ask the tech geeks here on one of my favorite forums  

Which do YOU PREFER?

1. Windows + WAMP/XAMPP (100% Windows dependency)

2. Windows + VirtualBox & LAMP?

3. Linux (or Mac) + VirtualBox & Win

4. a complete LAMP or MAMP stack (zero Windows reliance)

Again, I've used all the above, and tinkered beyond my hearts content in both environments.

I just wanted to start a little discussion to find out how others have their LAMPs set up.

[diogo]

I prefer the 4th, but I understand that you have some things that force you to be with Windows. I think running an OS on a virtual box for production is not ideal, depending on your Windows needs, you could also dual boot. Have you considered that?

I have http://elementaryos.org/ on my PC and, although it's still in beta, it's super fast and stable (more than Ubuntu and Fedora for sure). Maybe you can try that one

Edit: For me it's a great advantage to be running the same system as I have in the server. I installed Elementary some days ago, and Had a Lamp stack running in some minutes, and installed it ad tweaked exactly as I would do in a VPS server.

[kongondo]

#1 - XAMPP

Tried Linux various times but always went back to Windows - as a matter of choice

[OrganizedFellow]

#1 - XAMPP

Tried Linux various times but always went back to Windows - as a matter of choice

I remember using XAMPP years ago. I don't remember why I stopped using it. WampServer2.2 has worked well for me. I just figured out (needed to) how to create subdomains for a site project  

 ... you could also dual boot. Have you considered that?

I have http://elementaryos.org/ on my PC and, although it's still in beta, it's super fast and stable (more than Ubuntu and Fedora for sure). Maybe you can try that one

Edit: For me it's a great advantage to be running the same system as I have in the server. I installed Elementary some days ago, and Had a Lamp stack running in some minutes, and installed it ad tweaked exactly as I would do in a VPS server.

I was using Arch as my primary OS and Win7 as the secondary. But my wife hated to stand by to press 'down' and urged that I remove Linux, so I did.

I'll give Journal a shot ... VirtualBox to the rescue!

[diogo]

I'll give Journal a shot ... VirtualBox to the rescue!

The name is "Elementary OS", "Journal" is their blog

[AlexL]

Server side I use arch in VirtualBox / Linode VPS - I also run a LEMP stack (Nginx/MariaDB).

For Development I use a mac w/ TextWrangler, SequelPro, iTerm2, MySQL Workbench & Cyberduck

This combo works great for me!!!

[SiNNuT]

I prefer http://www.uniformserver.com/ for my wamp needs. It doesn't look really sexy but it is lightweight and powerfull. It's easy to setup vhosts, smtp for testing using gmail, hotmail etc. It keeps up with versions really well. http://wiki.uniformserver.com/index.php/Main_Page

[Rob]

If you are deploying on LAMP, then set up a LAMP stack in a virtual machine. You can get VMWare Player for free on Windows and install Linux very easily.

In my opinion it is better to fully understand the tools you are using and understand how to setup the LAMP components etc. It also makes it much easier to replicate the live environment if you can at least try to have the same version of Apache, PHP etc.

I used to use WAMP and XAMP out of laziness, but it can cause problems.  For example, windows (at least back then) is not case-sensitive and Linux is, so you have potential for problems with filenames right there.  With a pre-packaged stack you lose control and it can be harder to locate problems, fix bugs etc.

I understand why some people use these things when they start programming, but if you are serious about doing LAMP development, you will need to learn this stuff sooner or later.  I have not once regretted teaching myself to do command-line linux, install packages, set up PHP etc. It will pay off in the long term.  And once you know it, you can spin up virtual servers on the cloud for all kinds of purposes very easily, and maintain total control.

[diogo]

Uniformserver was also my favorite for windows

[OrganizedFellow]

Am giving UniformServer a shot and I gotta say, I like it MORE than my previous installation of WampServer2.2.