I enjoyed this book. It was well written and organized. The authors did a great job of explaining the install proceedure for Apache, PHP, and MySQL for Linux, Windows, and Mac. No small challenge, to say the least.
As they explain before delving into matters, PHP was transitioning from version 4 to 5, and the book was being published before/during the new versions release. Anyone familiar with the differences between these two realizes that some major changes were occuring, like OOP for example. This sometimes made for confusing reading as the code from each version can look much different yet perform the same task. MySQL also had a version change, which was not quite as impacting.
I was using a Windows install, but had already installed Apache, PHP, and MySQL on my own. So during the discussions of installations and configurations, it was sometimes difficult to match up my install with the one recommended in the book, especially when it came to setting up PEAR components. I suspect that someone following the book exclusively, from install to the final project, might avoid this confusion.
All in all, for not being familiar with PHP before reading this book, I learned a lot very quickly. I would definitely recommend it if you need a comprehensive crash course in LAMP, which is becoming ever more popular.
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