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tytheblackcat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 1, 2013
2
0
Hi everyone,

I am very new to mac. I just bought my first Macbook Air and I am really loving it.

I understand that macs come with Apache server and you need to enable it. Since I come from a PC world, I use XAMPP to run the Apache server and MySQL.

So my question is should I use the Apache server that came along with the mac? or should I just install XAMPP on my mac. What are the advantages of using the Apache server that came along with the mac?

Many thanks and apologies for such a newbie question.
 

alain651

macrumors newbie
Nov 11, 2011
25
0
Halifax, Canada
Ampps

Myself i prefer using the build in Apache2, to activate use terminal type " sudo apachectl start "...

open webpage type: localhost = It works !
Default document root
cd /Library/WebServer/Documents

And manually install PHP, MySql and setup root to your home Sites folder

** Also i would recommend AMPPS, its free and it work great..
http://www.ampps.com

At Lynda.com have excellent video on installation and setup
http://www.lynda.com/MySQL-tutorials/PHP-MySQL-Essential-Training/119003-2.html
 

thekingofnerds

macrumors regular
Jun 26, 2013
153
0
If you're just doing a dev server - MAMP pro can't be beat.

It costs $59, but makes managing everything an absolute breeze if you're constantly jumping between projects. Comes with a ton of php extensions pre-enabled (gd, mcrypt, curl, pdo, etc). There's also the free Mamp which is the same thing, minus the nice interface for managing it.
 

wgnoyes

macrumors 6502
Jul 20, 2011
287
33
I went through that myself, and even found a script to turn on/off the built-in apache server. But manually installing php and mysql were no-go's for me, so I went with MAMP. Very, VERY easy to use. I haven't looked back.
 

theluggage

macrumors 604
Jul 29, 2011
7,475
7,313
What are the advantages of using the Apache server that came along with the mac?

None unless you're anal about having two copies of Apache on your machine. You'll get newer versions of Apache, PHP etc. and more flexibility with add-ons by using your own server.

There used to be a "Web Sharing" on/off checkbox in "System Preferences" (I think it keyed in to the firewall as well) - a pretty slight advantage - and if you wanted to use MAMP etc. without disturbing this then you had to use a non-standard port for MAMP etc. Web sharing has been dropped in the current version of OS X, so that's no longer an issue. They've also dropped MySQL from the standard distribution in favour of PostgreSQL. None of these get used unless you install OS X Server, though.

The "OS X Server" add-on adds some GUI stuff for setting up local websites using the built-in server - but I wouldn't bother with that.

Either use MAMP as suggested or - if you like tinkering - install MacPorts and use that to build your own versions of Apache, PHP, Mysql/PostgreSQL etc. with exactly the features you want.
 

mslide

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2007
707
2
If this is for web development, I'd install a Linux VM and set everything up from scratch in that. That way, you A) learn how to set everything up and maintain it and B) don't have to worry about messing up your OSX installation if you screw up. Worst case, you blow away the VM and start over.
 
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