XAMPP

XAMPP for Windows is a complete server stack solution designed with the needs of developers in mind. Everything needed to install and configure a single web server comes in the XAMPP package, so system administrators won't have to download anything else to get up and running. Most of the scripts are stored as plain text documents, so those who need to make custom alterations are free to do so with any editor.

Web developers only have to inflate a single archive to get started with XAMPP services. While it does use a bit of redistributable code, the stack is otherwise free of middleware. Most of the packages could theoretically be installed separately from XAMPP, and this is normally how you would get a web server up and running. The fact that everything comes wrapped up in one single object makes it easy to use this even in a demonstration environment. As a result, XAMPP for Windows has become a favorite among server hardware hackers and those who have to give presentations.

Education market users might turn to it if they're trying to get a quick and dirty installation running for students to practice on. They wouldn't want to use it to actually host a site, however. XAMPP for Windows isn't really secure enough to run in a production environment. It lacks many of the security updates that a server used on the open web would need.

Those who really like all of it's features could easily install the Apache HTTP Server architecture separate from the XAMPP package. Once they add in some relevant interpreters for PHP and Perl, they'd more or less have the same exact thing that XAMPP for Windows provides. System administrators will often set up a simple XAMPP installation to make sure that everything is working before they graduate to a more serious version of the Apache server.

Since it doesn't require a connection to the Internet once it's installed, XAMPP is often used as a local server for running sophisticated tests. Web developers who want to make sure that all of their scripts are functioning as intended can roll-out XAMPP on their Windows box, plug away at their code and then upload it without the XAMPP packages attached.

As soon as you have XAMPP running live, you can connect to it over the file transfer protocol just like it was a remote server. Pointing FTP clients to nearly any local XAMPP resource is relatively trivial, which makes it an ideal option for those who are rushing to get a big project done and want to be able to work on it from their own terminal. Once they're done, they'll be in a better position to move up to a real server architecture.

Pros

• Includes everything in a single package
• Installs easily with one command
• Great for learning how to work with server infrastructures
• Can be used for demonstrations

Cons

• Relatively unsafe due to security decisions made by the developers
• Lacks certain important packages full XAMPP installations have