Ubuntu Development Environment
Ubuntu is an open source operating system. This popular Linux distribution is well suited for local development, as it doesn't have to mimic a production server. It's the most popular operating system on most online servers today. As a distribution of Linux, it’s already a development environment. So all we have to do is install and setup LAMP.
Please have a look at the tutorial on Setting up your Development Environment to get up to date with what servers are, and the development environment as a whole.
Also remember that LAMP stands for Linux Apache Mysql and PHP. By Linux distribution, we mean any operating system that is built off of Linux. Ubuntu is one of the many Linux distributions, including Debian, Fedora, Red hat, and Andriva amongst many. Do not worry about all this, we will continue to unpack them in the chapters that follow. But for now, just know that we are using Linux to setup your local environments in these tutorials.
Please note that we'll not be going through the Ubuntu installation in this tutorial. But there are plenty of resources out there for that. Have a look at these for a little guidance :
Alright … Okay … let’s get in there
Ctrl + Alt + T to launch your terminal
To install the default LAMP stack in Ubuntu since version 10.04, all you have to do is type these simple commands.
$ sudo apt-get update
This will update your system. And then you can just install LAMP
$ sudo apt-get install lamp-server^
Please watch the terminal and follow the various instructions during the installation.
The installation will take some time, so get some tea or coffee or a fifth of scotch and watch it. Ensure to complete all the various instructions.
Once it's done, we’ll start installing a simple but popular database management tool called Phpmyadmin. We'll unpack this tool a bit further in later chapters.
You ready? Call Tom; he’ll help you calm down.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
Once again, watch the installation for instructions and such.
Once that’s done, type this url in your browser http://localhost/, and you’lll see Apache’s home page. Well your local homepage with Apache stuff on it.
http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ will show you the phpmyadmin database management. Use the user and password you entered during installation.
Alright , okay .. you have now installed Lamp and PhpMyAdmin. Congratulations!!
"You ready? Call Tom; he’ll help you calm down."
The Village Geek
Check back in a day or two, for new material on our quest to building your new site.
Ciao ...
Cape Town, South Africa
