# From XAMPP to Ephemeral Postgres: Where "Works on My Machine" Has Led Us

DevFeed: [From XAMPP to Ephemeral Postgres: Where "Works on My Machine" Has Led Us](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/from-xampp-to-ephemeral-postgres-where-works-on-my-machine-has-led-us-5293.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://neon.com/blog/from-xampp-to-ephemeral-postgres>)

Author: Andrew Tate

Published: 2025-02-27T00:51:30Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Blog -- Neon Docs](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/blog-neon-docs.md>)

Topics: [Web Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-development.md>), [XAMPP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/xampp.md>), [MySQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mysql.md>), [PHP](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/php.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/configuration.md>), [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [Package Management](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/package-management.md>), [toolchains](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/toolchains.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>)

Tags: [apache](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apache.md>), [coding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/coding.md>), [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/configuration.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [databases](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/databases.md>), [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debugging.md>), [dependencies](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dependencies.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/development.md>), [environment-variables](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/environment-variables.md>), [installations](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/installations.md>), [libraries](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/libraries.md>), [local](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/local.md>), [mysql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mysql.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [package-management](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/package-management.md>), [php](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/php.md>), [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/servers.md>), [source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/source.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/systems.md>)

## AI overview

This article looks back at local web development in the 1990s, when developers manually installed and configured Apache, PHP, and databases such as MySQL and Postgres. It describes environment drift, dependency and version conflicts, difficult database setup, manual configuration, and the technical understanding that these constraints encouraged.

## Source excerpt

"It works on my machine" is now a trope--a horror story to tell young developers (or AI coding models) about what it was like to build without today's stack. Like all clichés, it was once true. Hodgepodge local installs, no containers, and massive environment drift were challenges...