XAMPP

What is XAMPP? Many people know from their own experience that it's not easy to install an Apache web server and it gets harder if you want to add MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is an easy to install Apache distribution containing MySQL, PHP and Perl. XAMPP is really very easy to install and to use - just download, extract and start. At the moment there are four XAMPP distributions: a version for Linux systems (tested for Ubuntu, SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and Debian), a version for Windows 98, NT, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista, a beta version for Solaris SPARC (developed and tested under Solaris 8), and a beta version for Mac OS X. These Mac OS X and Solaris versions of XAMPP are still in the first steps of development. Use at you own risk! To install XAMPP you only need to download and extract XAMPP, that's all. There are no changes to the Windows registry (not true if you use the Windows installer version of XAMPP) and it's not necessary to edit any configuration files. It couldn't be easier! To check that XAMPP is working some sample programs are included, there is a small CD collection program (written in PHP using MySQL) and a small guest book software (written in Perl) and several other demonstration utilities. If you decide that XAMPP isn't needed any more just delete the XAMPP directory and it's completely removed from your system.However if you use the Windows installer version of XAMPP it's recommended to use the uninstall feature. As every installer the installer will make registry entries to remember the install. XAMPP is a compilation of free software (comparable to a Linux distribution), it's free of charge and it's free to copy under the terms of the  GNU General Public License. Download and more detailed explanations here. I personally use XAMPP for years on my local windows machine, just for testing new sites and php and perl scripts. It is a best approaching to real web environment, so I reccomend LAMPP package to everyone who want to produce their own web pages and sites.