Windows 7: IIS 7.5 w/ PHP & MySQL or Apache w/ PHP & MySQL?

Question

I just got my self a new laptop, it runs on windows 7 and i am in deliberation what dev environment to set up.

I have most of my life used wamp set up, on windows machines for local dev environments. Here i recently installed IIS and it looks very convenient to set up sites and so on and so forth.

So I am thinking of installing php and mysql and runing local dev environment via IIS. The question is as I am fairly new to IIS. Are there any draw backs to running php/mysql via IIS in local dev environment. What are my limitations, will running php/mysql create any limitations if any that will hinder development and might effect deployment.

Back in a day i had some exposure to ISS with php running on server, it was long time ago, but php was not completely supported and some dev issues arose.

Thank you guys for any input. Greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

I would go for Apache - mainly for the .htaccess functions - rewriting etc are slightly more tricky in IIS and you may not get as great portability when transfering to a LAMP setup.

Answer 2

I personally believe that apache on windows is still a better solution to develop PHP. Reasons:

• much more documentation about the interaction between PHP and apache (for example url rewriting, proxying, etc...)
• apache is the de-facto standard for PHP, so if you plan to deploy to apache later, you will face less potential problems due to platform differences (also regarding the rare subtle bugs which can plague ported software)
• I find it easier to get meaningful error messages out of apache than from IIS

I try to install the same PHP and Apache versions I will be deploying to, so the chances to have differences is minimal...

Answer 3

Usually it is a benefit if you can use identical environments for development and production. So the question is:

On what stack do you deploy you applications?