php/mysq programmer moving to linux?

[sbogde]

Hi,

I am a php/mysq programmer & I'd like to completely get rid of windows and switch to linux.

I am mainly using these:
- zend dev environment/php editor
- browsers: ie, ff, safari
- a web localhost - apache, php, mysql
- sometimes adobe photoshop - screenshots, basic image manipulation

considering all these what linux distribution do you think I should use?

are there any php/mysql programmers that work in linux only?

I am really looking forward to hearing from you guys.

thank you.

[Cabhan]

I would venture to say that most PHP developers work in Linux. Many websites run on what is called the LAMP platform of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/Python/PHP, etc.

Any Linux distribution can run any Linux application. In your case, Apache, PHP, and MySQL all run on Linux, as does Firefox. IE and Safari do NOT. Photoshop also does not, but there is an application called Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) that can do many of the same things.

As far as an IDE, I don't use one myself, but there are many available.

If you're brand new to Linux, I suggest checking out the Ubuntu distribution, as it is very user friendly and a good introduction. However, as I said, any Linux distribution can run any Linux application, so the choice of distro is really just what makes you feel most comfortable.

[elija]

I'd have to second Ubuntu as a great distro. It is easy to set up a LAMP setup for development.

For my IDE, I use Komodo Edit (from ActiveState Home) because it is the same editor I use under Windows at work. It doesn't do debugging but you can buy Komodo IDE which does.

I test using Firefox and Opera and IE on a friends windows machine... I haven't got Safari installed at the moment but it will run under WINE as will IE I believe. I've tried ies4linux but it doesn't work maybe because I'm running 64 bit