Installing Apache2 and PHP on Ubuntu 12.04

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The only simple command you need is:

sudo apt-get install apache2

Navigate to: http://localhost and you shall see the magical 'It works!' file! 

Now to get PHP working:

sudo apt-get install php5
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5
sudo service restart apache2

Now gloriously create a PHP file and marvel at it being executed locally!

If you wish to display PHP errors (which are much more helpful than a blank not working page) find your php.ini file.
In my case I ended up editing the php.ini that lies in /etc/php5/cli/php.ini and /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

Open up the file and search for and set to 'On' the following:
display_errors
display_startup_errors
html_errors
log_errors

Also change error_reporting to 'E_ALL | E_STRICT'

And finally restart Apache with:
sudo service restart apache2

Now you should be on all done!

Much simpler than Windows....


References
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Error reporting thanks to: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5050426/php-errors-not-being-displayed-in-the-browser-ubuntu-10-10
Apache2 and PHP thanks to: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/installing-php5-and-apache-on-ubuntu/