Curt Zirzow wrote: > On Sat, Feb 25, 2006 at 01:41:06PM -0900, Chris Lott wrote: > >>I'm making the switch from Windows to Linux for mydesktop and >>development environment and would greatly appreciate suggestions for >>development tools on this platform. Ubuntu seems to be getting all the >>press, but suggestions about Linux distributions are welcome as well! > Basically what everyone else has said... they all work basically the same, it's just personal preference. I've tried a few and personally find Debian the best, I run screaming from anything that uses rpms. > > Before I get into what distib to use there are a few things i'd > like to point out: > > 1) Avoid using the packaging system the OS provides for the > developement server. If you do, you will be under the control > of the OS for your choice of versions of webserver, db server, > php, or any dependency that is needed for those. > I would consider the above to be the worst advice you could possibly give someone starting out in Linux land. The easiest, nastiest and most confusing way to screw up your linux install is to start manually installing packages. I killed my first install and nearly my second before I learnt my lesson. Dependancy hell is the reason why package management systems exist, to compile php5 on a fairly clean debian install I would need to install roughly 130 packages, there is no way that I'm going to try to do that by hand. When one of my friends starts using linux I give tell them to never do a manual install. You stick with the packages supplied or go with unofficial packages like debian backports. Compiling packages has it's place, many of my computers have a manually compiled PHP, but it's definantly not something to do on a first date. I also use the package manager to get all the dependancies (apt-get build-dep php5) and all the related programs such as apache and postgres. David -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
