Thanks adead for any help as far as advice goes on this.

I am working as cheap as possible. It is an Toshiba L500 (Satellite), an old model that I fixed up after the owner had her laptop used as a trampoline by a 4 year old when it was sitting beside her bed.

I fixed it not so hard to do and it works fine so far. I put Ubuntu 13.10 from a cd I got in a linux mag about 6 months or so ago. Now my windows netbook is out because the power supply doesn't work I decided to go all in and use Linux now; forget about windows completely seems good to me at this stage.

I wanted to load Lamp on this unit using ubuntu but not so sure it is the best way to go. I am developing a tool for creating websites and it is going OK and want to turn it into a full blown CMS. I want to use PHP only if Possible. At this tage I would like to be lead to choose the best Linux OS distribution for this Laptop and also this project. Any advice as to what distro and why it is best would be good to know and have to condsider. I also need to know how to go about installing Lamp for web-development using the equipment and tools I described. Its not about putting it online as a server at all and only about developing the app using the basic Lamp stack.

I have had some exposure to Linux in the past but need to refresh my knowledge and experience. I am starting off from scratch at this point. I have limited access to the internet and use any network I can find to get connected to the internet.

first things first...why don't you plug in a few live CDs to see how they go?

You sound like you are looking for a server distro though (Debian, Centos) but I gather Ubuntu runs plenty of servers so have a look at the latest LTS release.

Once you have selected your OS then you can get down to the nitty gritty of configuring it.

thanks for your response. trouble is I haven't got any cds to try. am aiming to get involved with some plug community members events here in my home town Perth but they are not for a few weeks and so no access to cds with distro's as yet. Also downloads are not so easy to get because there is restrictions on downloading data at most wireless sites I get to use. I kept getting cut off last time I tried here at this spot, when I last tried a few days ago. I can work it if I know something definite, or make it happen somehow by getting to the right place to download something, but need to know a definite distro to try one that suites what I want to do. Hence the reason I asked what I did. I really need some advice specific advice and the reasons for the referal to that particular distro. I am trying here first because am under the impression it is a good place to get this kind of information from, it must have people who use the distro's and know from personal experience.

I have had wamp on a windows device which I used for a long time. Lamp is the linux eqivalent and was around before wamp as I understand it. I was going to do ahead and load it onto this ubuntu device but would like to know if it is preferable to use another distro or if there are alternative distro's that can be used, maybe distro's geared more for a laptop like the Satelite I am using.

Look I have to say here after not getting the required replies to this request (well its only really a day gone by maybe 2 maybe it should wait some) It may be that I am coming across as someone who is making an app for financial gain and want to use free software to do it.

Couldn't be further from the truth: am working on publishing an app that generates websites as free software or open source. I simply want to use this free L500 laptop (I was given) to make free software using free software (linux OS and Apache-Lamp). I must be possible.

I would appreciate any expert advice that I can get from enthusiasts and professionals alike. In the meantime I am doing some research on my own but still need confirmation through this site with my request to be confident that I am onto the right thing. Thank you for any replies to this post.