Windows to Linux (Ubuntu) - 1

Its been two full weeks since I installed Ubuntu inside Windows XP (click here to see how) and and I have booted into XP just once (Oh God! I love Windows' games). I'll say thats not bad for a person who has always been critical of non-Windows systems for the fact that the variety of software packages just can't be compared. I did miss Windows for two days, which I spent getting Xampp to a good working condition and I even pulled my hair at the mess wrong (too less or too much) permissions can create. After that, it was a smooth drive. Installing new software can't be easier - just one command. Startup and Shutdown speeds are also very impressive. Memory consumption is less (thanks to no Avast and no ZoneAlarm) and firefox performs better although I can't update it to the latest 3.5 as Firefox for Ubuntu is customised and it takes a few months for the latest version to be customised.

Games aside, Ubuntu is a brilliant OS to work on, whether you are a developer or a casual user. Whichever software you may have been using, there is an alternative available for free ("Free as in Beer, and Free as in Freedom") in the Open Source world. If you just can't work without MS technologies like Silverlight or the open source alternatives don't seem to fill the place of your expensive software, then its no compulsion (obviously!).

Now, let me see more of it to write more of it.

Using PHP from the Command Line (Terminal) in Linux with a xampp install

This is for those who are using the xampp server. If you are using the Generic Linux apache and PHP packages, use you package manager to download php-cli .

If you are using xampp, you already have the php-cli library. In the terminal, type:

/opt/lampp/bin/php {input file} {arguments}

Done! If you don't like using /opt/lampp/bin/php every time, you can set php as an environment variable for /opt/lampp/bin/php.

To do this, go to terminal and type:

php=/opt/lampp/bin/php
export php

if you are using Bash Shell (the default one in Ubuntu), you can use this shortcut:

export php=/opt/lampp/bin/php

and reboot.

now you can use

php {input file} {arguments}