Risks and benefits with developement platforms?

Question

Hi,
I'm wondering about the risks involved with different developement platforms such as xampp or other software like it. Previously I've been running EasyPHP and xampp as well as apache php and mysql each by them self in a windows environment restricted to the local ip range. However since the past year I've mostly used either a FreeBSD machine or my Arch Linux setup (my main computer) and I'm thinking of using xampp on this setup but I'm unsure about what potential threats it poses. Any tip on how to get a smooth and secure yet powerfull and customizable developement platform is greatly appreciated!
What are the critical risks requiring immediate action post installation?
Is there maybe another more customizable LAMP or one that's better suited for Arch?
Edit: Spelling...
Last edited by Cipherslut (2013-07-24 17:46:30)

Answer 1

Clustering will make ZERO difference to most standard GUI apps.
Where it will make a difference is in applications that have been specifically written to take advantage od distributed computing. For example, complex mathmatical simulations, video encoding, gene sequencing, etc. In these applications the workload can be divided into chunks and passed out to nodes in the cluster for processing. When each node completes its calculations it passes the result back to the master node and waits for the next task
This model doesn't apply to iChat (you can't IM any faster than you can type), or iTunes (ok, audio encoding might benefit, but most tracks encode pretty quickly and you might find the time it takes to transfer the raw audio data over the network outweighs the advantages).
From a developer standpoint you can distribute your compiler tasks across a grid so that each node compiles a chunk of code and the master handles the final linking, but that's about the only advantage I can think of off-hand, unless you're planning on writing a distributed app.