I used XAMPP a long time ago. In 2001 I was building a story archive for a writer's group I was a member of. I discovered XAMPP while getting the project together, used it to create my development system, and updated it in 2008 when I got a new computer. A few years ago I took the archive off line for lack of interest. Since then, the group has come back to life. I am attempting to put the archive back on line. I just had a week of hassle trying to get Apache to work and it is beyond me to put development system together. I had though that XAMPP was only for Windows, and I now use Linux Mint 19.3. I decided I should look to see if XAMPP was available for Linux. Thankfully it is. Last time I just installed it and was using it quickly with little hassle. I do have some questions.
Is the MariaDB fully compatible with MYSQL? I have the last MYSQL dump from my host that contains all our old writing. I assume that whatever host I decide to use will be using MYSQL. Will my MYSQL dump of the old writing be uploadable to the host? Will MariaDB work with software written to use MYSQL?
I also have a question about the current install of Apache2/PHP/MYSQL on my Linux Mint 19.3 machine. In the software manager, there is a button to uninstall Apache. Does anyone know what else I should uninstall? Is it better to do a clean install of Linux Mint?
Thanks in advance for answering.