Ok. First of all I would say that I am still a Linux newbie. But getting there. I have an old Fedora Core 1 server with Oracle installed which I am happy with. years of no problems (except a fried hard disk). I use mod_plsql to make database webpages, and it works like a charm.
Now I am a bit facinated by this php thing. It is free, so much I have understood. And I have decided to dedicate an old P II 400, 128 Mb RAM, 6Gb Compaq Armada to become the php learning, developing and publishing machine.
I first tried to install Fedora Core 3 on it, worked, but the yum updates made the network card crash. Then I tried a Debian boot up CD. After some time I found out that yum is apt-get in debian, and got it updated. Gnome does not look as good as Fedora Core 3, and KDE complains about a 3 button mouse or something, but gnome works
And debian seems fine, since it has some great feature of updating kernels too, so it would be stable and updated for years to come as long as I type apt-get upgrade now and then.
Anyway. Back to the questions.
Question 1: Is debian a good distro for php programming. Is it some better for us newbies. Doesn't the Fedora distro come with a predifined allready set up php / database / web setup if you tick off "server" option during install?
Question 2: What do I have to have installed for php (web) programming. Is all I have to do is apt-get install apache2 and apt-get install php4 (Guess I could google up some instructions pages here.) I guess I have to apt-get some php for database too?
Question 3: What is the best database for php programming. Postgres? In oracle I type sqlplus, log in, then "create table (col1 varchar2(50));" to make a table. How would I do the same in Postgres?
I just need some hints here. I am still in doubt if I should keep the debian distro, or get something like Fedora Core 4 (hopefully it will work with the network card) where php is more or less automatically set up.
What distro / database / system is best for learning php programming?
