Use XAMPP or Install Nginx?

[drstr]

I'm very new to Linux and I'm a programmer (PHP, Python, Javascript) and I have used Docker, XAMPP for my Web design projects on windows.
recently I switched to Linux (Ubuntu) and I need web server for working on my projects and I'm a little confused since I see that XAMPP is available for Linux. But why?
Can't we just install Nginx, PHP,... directly to linux and use them without XAMPP or Docker?
Does it have a reason not to do so?
Sorry if it's a bad question. any information would be helpful.

 

[dcbrown73]

I know little to nothing about XAMPP. Apache or Nginx is can easily host a website for PHP, Python, or JavaScript based solutions.

 

[captain-sensible]

well horses for courses.

some probably are at the stage of finding it easier to use an install using bitnami where last time i used it, it was just running one file and where they get a package all in one of a web server, php MySQl; rather than manually doing it with apache .


My web dev limited these days to CodeIgniter4 and a CMS ; i use apache. One problem Windows users get when they switch to linux are the permissions.

Apache on Arch has listed in the httpd config that owner and user is for arch http:http ; although i read
that apache starts with ROOT control and then there is a "hand over" anyway as a standard user
your not going to be able to do any editing unless you use an editor with sudo permissions ; which has its downsides.

So first a user has to setup apache , get everything working , tweak httpd.conf, maybe php.ini then get over the hurdle of permissions- i guess at some stage its just too much for people - was there once.

Slackware wasn't that bad and Arch too was Ok , once i got virtual host working . never used docker though .


Basically the way i see it is xampp is an isolated ecosystem and goes to /opt for integration long term i would use apache or the other Ninja one - never used that either !


Lastly every distro has its quirks. I could never get my head around Debian based pkg system where
it goes something like , this has a rating of 100 , unless its washing day ..i'm being flippant of course !


Two pieces of advice :
1) install timeshift //that can put your settinsg back to how it was
2) back up all config // i just do it simply with for example :

cp  /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf       /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.bk

same for the few files you need to backup

 

[dos2unix]

last time i used it, it was just running one file and where they get a package all in one of a web server, php MySQl; rather than manually doing it with apache .

It depends on the distro, with Fedora it installs all the configs necessary to make php work with apache automatically.

Lastly every distro has its quirks.

This is truth!

 

[captain-sensible]

@drstr let us know how you get on. remember if you install and run xampp , if you then automatically also run apache there might be some "competition" for the listening ports . i.e localhost:80 localhost:8080

 

[drstr]

@drstr let us know how you get on. remember if you install and run xampp , if you then automatically also run apache there might be some "competition" for the listening ports . i.e localhost:80 localhost:8080

Thank you for your complete answer, I'll try them out.
and I'm shocked,I wasn't expecting answers like this and this fast

 

[KGIII]

You can also look into 'lamp-server' - which on many distros can be installed easily - such as 'sudo apt install lamp-server'. I'm not sure why they don't call it 'amp' as you obviously have Linux at that point.

 

[f33dm3bits]

I've not really used nginx but I've heard nginx is more lightweight and better suited for reverse proxies and such, if you want to be serving php websites or other scripts you will be better of using apache.

You can also look into 'lamp-server' - which on many distros can be installed easily - such as 'sudo apt install lamp-server'. I'm not sure why they don't call it 'amp' as you obviously have Linux at that point.

That's because there is also WAMP and WNMP for Windows.

 

[KGIII]

That's because there is also WAMP and WNMP for Windows.

LOL That's redundant! (I use that a lot. Well, when things are redundant. It's prompted by a Home Star Runner episode.)