Trying to get started with laravel...

I spend 3 hours trying to get it to work on Windows 7

First thing to do if you want to become a "real web developer" is to drop windows for a linux distribution and be confortable with it. Installing and getting laravel to work is a breeze when your os is correctly set up.

Maybe we could help you out if you told us what the errors were.

For instance - I remember having problems when installing Vagrant on Windows. I couldn't get Homestead to work with latest version of Vagrant, so I had to download 1.6.0 and it worked.

Yes, having either a Linux or an Apple computer would help you a lot. What you could also do is install a virtual machine on your Windows computer and install a Linux distribution inside it.

I was a bit worried this would be the answer. I just feel like there is so much to learn with linux or virtual machines before I can even get started learning Laravel.

So if I decide to install Linux, do you have anything to recommend me how to get started with that? How time consuming would it be? How much configuring would I need after fresh installation of Linux? I just dont know where to start.

What about Ubuntu? Would that be decent choice?

I would recommend either Ubuntu, a Ubuntu spin-off (Kubuntu, Lubuntu or Xubuntu) or Mint. These are all pretty much ready to go out of the box and all have access to the Debian and Ubuntu software repositories. You shouldnt need to do anything at all to have a fully functional system. Read up on the features and system requirements to see which one fits you best. I use Kubuntu and love it, but it is a little heavy on resources. It should take you about half an hour to an hour to install.

Install a virtual machine like VirtualBox or VMWare on your windows machine. There are several tutorials around on the web if you need help. Once its up and running, youll have to set up your development environment. Off the top of my head, youll need at lease php, a database program like mysql, and a decent text editor to get started. You also have to have a terminal program. All Linux systems come with a basic terminal, but installing a full featured one will help you immensely. Once you decide on a Linux distribution, I can recommend one.

Youll really do yourself a favor if you also learn some basic Unix terminal commands. If youre planning on getting into the IT industry, youll probably have to do this at some point anyway. There are hundreds of tutorials and references online, but if you want something a little more organized and full-on, Id recommend the edX Linux course. https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-linux-linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-2 It will take you through all the GUI Linux basics which will help you get set up, and then introduce you to the most common terminal commands. Its free and self-paced.

There's nothing wrong with using Windows as a development environment really. It has all the same tools you have on Linux and OS X, it just works a little different. If you're not comfortable with Linux and/or OS X already, installing Linux isn't going to get you started any faster.

Have a look at this thread, talks about an easy way to get started with Laravel on Windows, just ignore all the anti-windows comments :) https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/general-discussion/out-with-virtualboxvagranthomestead-in-with-laragon

(Disclaimer: I use OS X myself currently, but I've developed on Windows for many years as well)

I'm using vagrant and homestead on Windows and have no problems at all only thing that bothered me is a poor command line, but that can be fixed installing cygwin

Thanks for all the fast replies, I'm really surprised I got answered so fast.

Since I do know I will have to learn using linux sooner or later, I decided to believe more experienced people in this one and I'm now planning to install Ubuntu on side with my Windows.

I wouldn't say I'm comfortable with Linux, but I do know some basics and have used it on school so I think I should be fine. Maybe it's time to get out of the comfort zone!

The thing is, almost all web server you will ever use are running on a linux OS. If you want to deploy a website online someday you'll have to learn it anyway.

I know, I already have deployed few websites online. I have even been paid few times for the effort.

If you use vagrant your server is running on linux anyway and you can write your code in windows where you are comfortable and do your server stuff on linux via ssh, ssh isn't present on Windows, but you can easily use it with GitBash or some other tools :)

@Saalipie check out servers for hackers by @fideloper for a good learning resource.

@Saalipie You can use Windows and Vagrant/Homestead ... It's very easy. I might even make a video for this... I just figured out how to make it work myself this past week and tought 2 others how to set it up as well. It's not so bad.

@pmall Which tools do you use that are "better" in Linux than in Windows? I'm curious...

I'm tired of read same things over and over again...like "Linux > Windows" with no arguments at all.

There's tons of advantages. If you don't know them, you haven't used Linux or Unix on a daily basis and compared it.

• Permissions handling
• OS level file handling
• Native terminal/console
• File format is easier to use instead of NTFS (syncing etc)
• Similar OS environment to production server (if not exact same when using Linux not OS X)
• Productivity applications
• Package management (apt-get / yum / homebrew etc)
• Less application crashes (file recovery is also better on *nix)
• OS doesn't become clogged when you have more files (no need to install most programs as well)
• Free upgrades

To give a few

While running a server with Linux/Unix is a no brainer, developing in Windows is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Typically it's a knowledge deficit; all OSs have their advantages and disadvantages. Personally I like the freedom of hardware choice. Windows 10 will also be a free upgrade for all.

I recently wrote up a 'how-to' on developing with PHP/Laravel on Windows:

https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/general-discussion/out-with-virtualboxvagranthomestead-in-with-laragon?page=3#reply-32392

I'm not against OSX or Linux at all on the workstation, but it's totally unnecessary to switch operating systems (and sometimes hardware), just to develop a PHP application, abandoning what you already know.

take a look this https://gist.github.com/fideloper/7074502 you can ignore some lines or add more ,)

I can be done, yes. Nothing hard about it. Just productivity goes through the roof on *nix. I have nothing against either, I've developed on all Win/Linux/OS X.

Free for the first year. Have to have Win7 SP1/8.1 with updates turned on.

The only people having difficulty developing in Windows are novices surely?

Switch these same people over to Linux/OSX and they'll be in a whole different pile of shit.

I've used both Windows and Linux extensively and can tell you Linux is no saviour.

Many times I have upgraded a distribution that left me unable to even boot into a UI. Without some serious *nix skills, that's something you will struggle to recover from.

If you've cut your teeth on Windows, I'd recommend to stick with what you know. Getting to grips with Linux or OSX could set you back months before you even think about writing code.

Sorry, a bit of a rant but the OS argument is a never ending circle. To each their own.

@Saalipie: If you are familiar with Windows, stay with it. There is a software name Laragon that helps you install Laravel just 1 click. You can master it in a few minutes or less because it is very easy to use. After installing, you will have:

• Composer, Apache, MySQL, PHP 5.6
• (Advanced) You also have Memcached and Redis Server (also included an administrator system) . You may need to try Redis, it is very fast.
• It includes cmder shell tool with has many advanced features than cmd and powershell.

Introduced here: https://laracasts.com/index.php/discuss/channels/general-discussion/out-with-virtualboxvagranthomestead-in-with-laragon

Website: http://laragon.org

@justmekun great answer!

Just my 2 cents, we all need to know eventually how to develop on the three os's. And employers want self taught developers, not the book smart ones who can't read docs and figure stuff out.

@jekinney: From your post "I forgot to add that I'm supposed to do small project / report using Laravel before 17th day this month, so this is kinda urgent!" You need to use Laravel urgently and Laragon is the answer. After finishing your project, you have a lot of time to learn what you want :)

@justmekun Sounds like you are advertising laragon on here :P every reply has it in.

I agree with the linux camp, but that is a lot to get your head around by the 17th of the month. I use a Windows Vista laptop and am learning Laravel just fine. If you have Composer installed:

Open a fresh command line, type in: composer hit enter to start up composer. Assuming Composer started up, type: composer create-project laravel/laravel appName (appName is just whatever you want to name the app) Your app is now ready to run using PHP's built in webserver. Open another fresh command line window and type: php -S localhost:8000 Now open your favorite browser and point it to: http://localhost:8000/appName/public/index.php This should get you started. Then start watching and following along with the Laracast video tutorials for Laravel5.

If you did not get Composer to start up..well, start there with Mr Google.

EDIT: You can start the server in the same command line window where you created your app, I was just going to take you a little further if you got your app up and running.

@bashy: There are a lot of people having troubles in installing Laravel on Windows. I was one. Luckily, I found Laragon is the solution. Actually, I am willing to help people more but currently, install Laravel on Windows are topics I can help well because I am new to Laravel.

@the_wannabe: With that url, you will get trouble in css path, routes,...when you go further with Laravel: http://localhost:8000/appName/public/index.php You can try Laragon, when you create a new project, it will generate friendly url: http://appName.dev It is shorter. And think about if you will have appName2, appName3, appName4,... you don't have to run command each time you want to test each Laravel project.

@justmekun: Thanks, I will give it a whirl. I am new to Laravel, so all advice is welcome. I was just trying to help get another noob up and running. So far, I love Laravel!

Hi,

I'm new to Laravel aswell, but i got it to work on W7 and W8 without to much problems. I have very little experience with apple and linux, so Windows is the way to go for me.

The way i got it to work is as follows:

1. Install Wamp
2. Install Composer
3. Open CMD -> navigate to wamp/www and type: composer create-project laravel/laravel laravel
4. Let it run untill you see it's finished
5. Setup a vhost in apache (you will also need to edit yout hosts file for this), mine is laravel.dev (instead of localhost/laravel)

Hey, I'm really excited to say I have finally started learning Laravel instead of just struggling with installation and such.

I was about to install linux, Ubuntu package but then I checked this topic again and read about Laragon and what justmekun had wrote about it. I wanted to test it before installing linux, and just like justmekun mentioned: it was really easy to get Laravel setuped with Laragon.

This solution was really the best possible one for me for now, so I can actually start learning Laragon and can focus on it instead of being stuck all the time without really learning anything.

However I do believe you guys with more experience know what you are talking about when you suggest us to learn developing in differend envinronments like linux, and I'm planning to do that in future, but for this small project I'm doing Laragon was perfect answer really.

Thanks everyone, I have actually learned something today!

@Saalipie : Glad to see it helps you. For Linux, I suggest you try http://phansible.com/ for your development stack.

@pmall

I resent your "real developer remark" lol. But really a "real web developer" should be able to utilize any OS.