Symphony.

Many frameworks have a version that is self contained (server and light database included), for local development, as an application that can be installed, and again uninstalled with a few clicks. Also some frameworks can add modules from within, without using github. This really seduces developers new to it to start playing around with things. And gets frontend-guys(designers) onboard for mockups to convince their coding peers/bosses.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to offer symphony that way too? Redistribute XAMPP or MAMP with the preinstalled default workspace. And if not offered from this site (why not?) a builder ensemble.

I asked this question last year in summer.

The response then was that this is something that would need to be supported, and the team weren't willing to support it, especially as Symphony is so easy to install anyway. Also, adding a new *amp installation for every site to be developed seems like a massive overkill, and would take more time than just installing Symphony.

The maintenance problem; I see this with non- *amp apps by sole developers, linux often gets all the love with compiled versions, and windows and mac have to compile themselves, or use older versions. These however have all kinds of dependencies and thus are complex to keep working across platforms and OSes. But when building on an actively maintained *amp installer, the work is limited to just making a new image of the latest version. For the target audience one can even assume that no linux or windows versions are needed... Indeed there'd have to be a person in charge of maintaining it, hence my title ; advocacy working group.

adding a new *amp installation for every site to be developed

It's for the first encounter with symphony, or for personal usage by non-coders. Of course the pro's, once convinced by symphony, and not another framework that does offer a standalone version, don't need it.

Also the nice thing is that once you move on, you can keep the *amp installation and go from there and install additional sites (or even upgrade to MAMP pro fro 3 virtual sites). No need to uninstall it and start from scratch. Since the trial package actually is the real thing, not some ill-suited for deployment version with a light database.