Before going into useful features of XAMPP that can be helpful for today’s developers, let’s first look into PHP.
Did you know PHP has almost 77% share on the web. Although recently we see less projects on Upwork, Freelance, Fiverr etc that does not mean PHP has lost its market share. Keep in mind that most of the big websites are still powered by PHP like Facebook, WordPress, Wikipedia, Tumbler, Slack and more. Also 80% of the new websites built today are on PHP.
History of PHP
Let’s dig into PHP’s “Rise and Fall”.
PHP journey started from 1993 and became popular in 2004 when it released PHP 5. It was the only popular language till 2014 but it lost its popularity when other languages like Java, Python etc used extensively for backend functionality.
PHP 8 that is the latest version is the most featured version of PHP today.
Though PHP has lost some battles but it has won many. Still PHP is the most server side scripting language.
it is very easy to start with, for new beginners it is a piece of cake. Packages like XAMPP offer you simple PHP developing environment using you PC. Easy to work remotely on your PC and send the finalised development to clients. It is fast when tested at your own PC.
PHP 8 bring a lo new features to the table and is secure too. It has a great community support and is open source. PHP hosting is available everywhere and cheap to avail.
All these facts and figures say that PHP is not dead, but it has lost some of its share in market.
If you are beginner and want to learn PHP then XAMPP is a good option.
XAMPP in 2023 For Beginners
XAMPP is easy to run, install and configure. It comes with packages like Apache, PHP, filezilla, mysql etc.
The latest version of xampp contains latest version of PHP. GUI of xampp is also very easy, it has start buttons to initiate different pacakges.
The updated builds of XAMPP come with latest versions of PHP, so it is good to use amazing features of PHP 8. It also offers latest Apache, Perl, Maria DB and other packages.
Conclusion
If you are a beginner PHP developer XAMPP is a good option. XAMPP offers latest version of PHP, which is full of amazing features.
PHP has developed a lot after the release of PHP 7. PHP 8 offers even more amazing features in terms of security, maturity and extensive use.
Although PHP projects on freelance platform are a little less today. But if you are a good PHP developer there are a lot of projects that you can hunt on online platforms. PHP has a lot to offer for its developers.
XAMPP being an easy distribution of Apache that comes with a lot of packages make it very useful to convert your PC a local server and test your PHP work at faster speeds.