WAMP vs individually installing PHP, Apache, and MySQL

Question

I am totally new to programming and to some new technologies. Right now I am using WAMP on my Windows Vista. For me, using WAMP is very convenient because I am gonna install once and no need for complicated configuration.

I was OK with it until someone told me that it's not good to use WAMP, EasyPHP, XAMPP, and MAMP because if one of the components such as MySQL crashes it won't work anymore. He said that it's best to install them separately and do a pain in the ass configure later.

Please advice.

Answer 1

For development and small low volume sites WAMP is just fine!.

If you are not reasonably experienced with installing configuring Apache, php and whatever SQL you are using then a WAMP package is still the better option as a suboptimal configuration is better than a broken one.

Once you are deploying to production and need to deal with larger transaction volumes and security issues then you should really install the components separately and custom configure for your particular needs.

However realistically if you get as far as a small/medium volume production application it will probably be deployed on a rented application infrastructure where all this will be done for you.

So yes stick with WAMP. Time is better spent getting your App right than learning the esoteric settings in the various config files.

Answer 2

WAMP has a clear goal: to provide a usable PHP environment directly out of the box. 0 configuration needed. 0 knowledge needed. You click and it works. If you are a newcomer, this is an obvious choice.

Configuring complex software like Apache and PHP is really difficult for a newcomer. If you're not actually going to use WAMP in a production environment, there is no reason you would have to touch the default configuration.

Making a separate installation for each of those components just doesn't make sense if you're discovering programming. When you're more experienced, you'll certainly enjoy editing obscure configuration files on a distant machine.

My advice is to go for WAMP on your development PC.