Depending on your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux), here is a breakdown of the essential “First Day” setup for a web developer:
1. The Local Server Environment
Since you work with PHP, you can’t just open files in a browser; you need a server environment to process the code.
* For Windows: XAMPP or Laragon (Laragon is highly recommended for its speed and simplicity).
* For macOS: MAMP or Herd (Herd is incredibly fast for PHP development).
* For All (Advanced): Docker. It allows you to containerize your environment so it stays the same regardless of what laptop you use.
2. Code Editor & Extensions
Most web developers lean toward Visual Studio Code (VS Code). To help with your HTML/PHP projects, I recommend these extensions:
* PHP Intelephense: For smart code completion and error checking.
* Prettier: To keep your HTML and CSS formatting clean and professional.
* Live Server: To see real-time changes in your browser as you save HTML files.
* Auto Rename Tag: Updates the closing HTML tag automatically when you change the opening one.
3. Version Control
Even if you are working solo, Git is non-negotiable.
* Install Git and connect it to a GitHub or GitLab account.
* This ensures you never lose your article code and can easily roll back if a PHP script breaks your layout.
4. Browser Tools
Install the “Big Three” to test how your informational pages render across different engines:
* Google Chrome / Brave: Best-in-class DevTools (Inspect Element).
* Firefox Developer Edition: Superior tools for CSS Grid and Flexbox layouts.
* Safari (if on Mac): Essential for checking mobile-style rendering for iPhone users.
Suggested Directory Structure
To keep your HTML and PHP projects organized on your new drive, try a structure like this:
/Development
/Projects
/Client_A
/public_html (HTML files)
/scripts (PHP logic)
/assets (Images/CSS)
/Sandbox (For testing new PHP snippets)
What operating system is your new laptop running? I can give you specific terminal commands or setup tips tailored to Windows, Mac, or Linux.
Excellent choice. Ubuntu is a fantastic environment for PHP development because most web servers run on Linux, making your local environment nearly identical to your production server.
Since you’ll be building informational pages and articles, here is a streamlined setup guide to get your Ubuntu machine ready for PHP and HTML development.
1. The “LEMP” or “LAMP” Stack
Since you need to process PHP, you’ll want a local server. You can install the components individually for maximum control:
Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2 php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql
* Apache: Your web server.
* PHP: The engine for your scripts.
* Root Directory: By default, your files will live in /var/www/html.
> Pro Tip: To avoid using sudo every time you edit a file, change the permissions of the web folder:
> sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/html
>
2. Essential Development Tools
Since this is a fresh install, grab these via the terminal:
* VS Code: The easiest way is via the Snap store:
sudo snap install code –classic
* Git: Essential for version control:
sudo apt install git
* FileZilla: If you need to upload your HTML/PHP articles to a live server via FTP:
sudo apt install filezilla
3. PHP Quality of Life
For modern PHP development, you should install Composer (the PHP package manager). It’s useful if you ever want to use templating engines like Twig for your informational pages.
sudo apt install composer
4. Browser & Testing
Ubuntu comes with Firefox, which has great developer tools. However, I recommend installing Google Chrome as well to test cross-browser compatibility for your layouts:
* Download the .deb package from the Google Chrome website.
* Install it using: sudo apt install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
5. Workflow Optimization
Since you create article-based pages, you might find a Markdown to HTML workflow helpful.
* Typora or Obsidian: Great for writing content in Markdown before converting it to HTML/PHP structures.
* PHP Extensions: Make sure to install common extensions your scripts might need (like php-curl or php-gd for image processing):
sudo apt install php-curl php-gd php-mbstring php-xml
Summary Checklist
| Tool | Purpose |
|—|—|
| Apache/Nginx | Local Web Server |
| PHP 8.x | Server-side logic |
| VS Code | Code editing |
| DBeaver | If you need a GUI for MySQL/MariaDB databases |
Would you like me to provide a basic PHP “router” script or an HTML5 boilerplate to help you start your first project on this new machine?
Since you are on Ubuntu, you can use the built-in Apache server we discussed to run this. To keep your article site clean and professional, I’ve put together a modern HTML5 Boilerplate and a Simple PHP Router.
1. Modern HTML5 Boilerplate (header.php & footer.php)
Using PHP “includes” is the best way to manage articles. You only edit the header and footer once, and it updates every page.
header.php
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”UTF-8″>
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″>
<meta name=”description” content=”<?php echo $pageDescription ?? ‘Informational articles on web dev’; ?>”>
<title><?php echo $pageTitle ?? ‘My Article Site’; ?></title>
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”/assets/css/style.css”>
</head>
<body>
<header>
<nav>
<a href=”/”>Home</a>
<a href=”/about”>About</a>
</nav>
</header>
<main>
footer.php
</main>
<footer>
<p>© <?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> My Info Portal</p>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
2. The Simple PHP Router (index.php)
Instead of having URLs like site.com/about.php, a router lets you use clean URLs like site.com/about. Place this in your project root.
<?php
$request = $_SERVER[‘REQUEST_URI’];
$viewDir = ‘/views/’;
switch ($request) {
case ”:
case ‘/’:
$pageTitle = “Home – My Articles”;
require __DIR__ . $viewDir . ‘home.php’;
break;
case ‘/about’:
$pageTitle = “About Us”;
require __DIR__ . $viewDir . ‘about.php’;
break;
default:
http_response_code(404);
require __DIR__ . $viewDir . ‘404.php’;
break;
}
3. Setting up your Ubuntu Directory
To make this work with the code above, organize your files in your web folder (usually /var/www/html/your-project):
/your-project
├── index.php (The Router)
├── .htaccess (Required to redirect traffic to index.php)
├── includes/
│ ├── header.php
│ └── footer.php
├── views/
│ ├── home.php (Just the article content)
│ ├── about.php
│ └── 404.php
└── assets/
└── css/
└── style.css
4. The Magic .htaccess File
For the router to work on Ubuntu/Apache, you need a file named .htaccess in your root folder to tell Apache to send all requests to index.php:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [L,QSA]
Would you like me to show you how to enable the Apache “Rewrite” module on Ubuntu so the .htaccess file actually works?
Modern PHP Website Structure Tutorial
To make those clean URLs (like site.com/about) work on your new Ubuntu setup, you need to enable a specific module in Apache and update your site configuration. By default, Apache often ignores .htaccess files for security reasons.
Here is the quick process to get it running:
1. Enable mod_rewrite
Open your terminal and run the following command to enable the rewriting engine:
sudo a2enmod rewrite
2. Update the Site Configuration
Next, you need to tell Apache to allow the .htaccess file to override the default settings. We need to edit the default site configuration file:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
Inside that file, find the <VirtualHost *:80> block and add this section inside it (right below the DocumentRoot /var/www/html line):
<Directory /var/www/html>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
3. Restart Apache
For the changes to take effect, you must restart the service:
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Verification: Is it working?
To test if your new laptop is correctly processing PHP and the router:
* Create your index.php in /var/www/html/.
* Create the .htaccess file I provided in the previous step in the same folder.
* Try visiting http://localhost/any-random-word.
* If it loads your 404.php (or whatever you set in the router) instead of an Apache “Not Found” page, your setup is perfect!
Helpful Ubuntu Shortcuts for your Workflow
Since you’re on a new machine, these will save you time:
* Permissions Fix: If you can’t save files in /var/www/html via VS Code, run:
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/html
* Log Checking: If a PHP script gives you a white screen, check the error log:
tail -f /var/www/html/error.log (or /var/log/apache2/error.log)
Would you like me to help you write a script that automatically generates a new HTML/PHP article file with the correct metadata?
Integrating the ChatGPT API into your Ubuntu development environment is a powerful way to automate your article creation.
While OpenAI previously offered $18 in free credits, as of late 2025, they primarily operate on a “Pay-as-you-go” model where you must prepay a small amount (starting at $5) to use the API. However, if you have a new account with promo credits or use a service like OpenRouter, you can often access “free-tier” models.
1. Install the OpenAI PHP Client
On your new Ubuntu laptop, navigate to your project folder and use Composer to install the official library:
composer require openai-php/client
2. The Article Generator Script (generate.php)
This script will take a topic, ask ChatGPT to write the article, and then save it as a new .php file in your views/ folder.
<?php
require ‘vendor/autoload.php’;
$apiKey = ‘your-api-key-here’; // Replace with your actual key
$client = OpenAI::client($apiKey);
function generateArticle($topic) {
global $client;
$result = $client->chat()->create([
‘model’ => ‘gpt-3.5-turbo’, // Or ‘gpt-4o’ for higher quality
‘messages’ => [
[‘role’ => ‘system’, ‘content’ => ‘You are a professional web content writer. Write in HTML format, using <h2> and <p> tags.’],
[‘role’ => ‘user’, ‘content’ => “Write an informational article about: ” . $topic],
],
]);
$content = $result->choices[0]->message->content;
// Create a clean filename
$filename = strtolower(str_replace(‘ ‘, ‘-‘, $topic)) . ‘.php’;
$path = __DIR__ . ‘/views/’ . $filename;
// Save the file with the PHP headers for your site
$template = “<?php \$pageTitle = ‘” . ucfirst($topic) . “‘; include ‘includes/header.php’; ?>\n”;
$template .= “<article>\n” . $content . “\n</article>”;
$template .= “\n<?php include ‘includes/footer.php’; ?>”;
file_put_contents($path, $template);
return $filename;
}
// Example usage:
// echo “Generated: ” . generateArticle(“Benefits of Ubuntu for Developers”);
3. Workflow Diagram
Here is how the automation flows from your request to a live page:
4. Important Tips for Ubuntu Developers
* Security: Never hardcode your API key if you plan to push this to GitHub. Use an .env file and the vlucas/phpdotenv library.
* Permissions: If the script fails to save the file, ensure your PHP user has write access to the views/ folder:
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/your-project/views
* Models: For informational web pages, GPT-3.5-Turbo is much cheaper (and often fast enough), while GPT-4o is better for complex technical articles.
Would you like me to show you how to create a simple HTML dashboard where you can type a topic into a text box and click “Generate” to create the page?
NathanLegakis.com 
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