Question

I get more and more trouble from running WAMP on my XP computer to solve my local development needs. It feels like as more and more things just go wrong or could not be installed at all to a Windows version of PHP.

I have been looking for an alternative and found AndLinux plus this link.

Would it be a good idea to get an Ubuntu box running virtually on my XP computer to simulate the production web server?

Answer 1

Regarding virtual machines:

Advantages

• Isolation: Everything in the VM is completely separate from the host; no cross contamination.
• Easy Testing: Most VM software have snapshot and rollback capabilities.
• Mobility: If you wanted to, you could easily move the self-contained VM over to another machine.

Disadvantages

• Inconvenient: File transfer between the host and guest. Using “shared folders” alleviates this somewhat.
• Virtual Hardware: Not good for graphics-intensive programs or other software that relies on certain hardware features (which shouldn’t be a problem in this case).