I’m considering an all-in-one package for Apache, PHP, and MySQL. What would you recommend – Wamp or Xampp? and why?
Thanks. Yes, I know how to install the individual packages; that’s why I’m asking about quick-fix solutions in case I’m ever on the go. Good to know that Wamp seems to be working out.
I should probably look into Linux – too true.
Wamp seems to be the most popular, try them both out for 5 mins and go with the one you like 
As a third option, you could dual boot Linux - I’d seriously recommend this (or getting a mac) if you’ll be doing a lot of dev work.
Okay, great! Thank you, everyone, for your advice!
At least for learning phase, you should start installing individual packages and configure them one and that would let you know understand how and what they work differently. I haven’t used XAMPP yet but I have seen some people here in my office using WAMP and it seems pretty good and handy specially when you want to change the configurations like enabling/disabling extensions etc.
There are versions of XAMPP for Windows, Linux, and Mac so for cross operating system use that one is probably best.
Each have their quirks and problems that you can work around if you manually install the components.