Remove third party Windows tool section and other references to XAMPP #4720
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Related: #1674 (comment)
The third party Windows tools list is currently unmaintained.
While it could possibly updated, I don't think there's one clear tool or list of tools that could easily replace it and not be in danger of quickly going out of date.
This page is most likely used by new developers, and whichever option is listed first is going to be the most likely to be used. This ends up boosting one specific project to the detriment of other, possibly better options, and the situation we're in now where new users are starting out on an old version of PHP, with an unmaintained toolset and dwindling support community.
The need for "easy installers" like XAMPP has been significantly reduced by the advances over the years in options provided by containers, virtual machines and WSL. (All of which give the developer a more linux-like environment which is likely to be closer to their actual hosting, and better community support when they run into issues)
XAMPP specifically appears to be unmaintained, with the most recent release using PHP 8.2, in Nov 2023. Their repos have seen no significant recent commits or other activity that might indicate an upcoming release that I could find. Directing new developers to start on an old version of PHP, and an unmaintained toolset is a disservice to them.
(XAMPP also appears to be installing MariaDB and referring to it as MySQL, which causes further confusion, and is a questionable at best choice as MariaDB continues to diverge from Oracle MySQL in both technical implementation and SQL support)
I fairly frequently see users in help channels / forums with issues enabling extensions or keeping MySQL/MariaDB running under XAMPP - whether or not these are directly related to it being unmaintained, I don't know, but I believe that it certainly doesn't help.