setting up a system for development

[complete]

Hello group.  I already have a php web site set up and hosted by an internet service provider.  I FTP all the files over the internet to the site.  I have found that the only way to debut it is to set up a local version of it with my own Operating Server.  I assume that this is the case, anyway.

I also assume that I should use a Linux distribution in order to do this properly.  I have a Linux machine already.  So I guess this will do.

Can anyone suggest a way to get started with this?

[Celauran]

Digital Ocean has a pretty good tutorial on setting up a LAMP stack on Ubuntu. Alternately, take a look at something like Vagrant.

[reactqt]

check monarch claim here
Alternately, take a look at something like Vagrant.
headphone pit

I've heard a lot of talk about Vagrant but I've always wondered what significant advantage it has over virtual machines like VirtualBox. I mean I could create environments then save and share the OVA.

[Celauran]

Vagrant uses VirtualBox under the hood. It's mostly an SSH wrapper around the VM. Advantages off the top of my head are SSH and Samba configurations for free, auto mounting directory sync, and ease of sharing configuration. You could absolutely accomplish the same with VirtualBox, it'd just be a bit more work.