>>> [!note] Migrated issue <!-- Drupal.org comment --> <!-- Migrated from issue #2965681. --> Reported by: [tedbow](https://www.drupal.org/user/240860) >>> <h3 id="summary-problem-motivation">Problem/Motivation</h3> <p>Setting up a local development environment for Drupal is no easy task for newcomers. This was highlighted in <a href="https://www.drupal.org/u/grasmash">Matthew Grasmick</a>'s blog post <a href="http://matthewgrasmick.com/compare-php-frameworks">Stranger in a familiar land: Comparing the novice's first impression of Drupal to other PHP frameworks</a>. In this exercise it took over 20 clicks and 15+ minutes to create a Drupal site on a local machine compare to under 7 clicks for Symfony, Wordpress and Laravel. The documentation for setting up a local development environment is also hard to follow.</p> <p>After Matt's post Dries wrote <a href="https://dri.es/three-ways-we-can-improve-drupal-evaluator-experience">Three ways we can improve Drupal's evaluator experience</a>. In this post he highlighted</p> <blockquote><p>A single, recommended default installation environment (e.g. Docker container) for evaluators or developers taking their first steps in Drupal development.</p></blockquote> <p>as a recommendation for improving Drupal's evaluator experience.</p> <p>Following this at Drupalcon Nashville(2018) we had the BoF <a href="https://events.drupal.org/nashville2018/bofs/official-drupal-local-develop-environment">An official Drupal local develop environment?</a>. The BoF was attended by over 30 people including representatives of the most popular local development environment projects for Drupal, <a href="https://docksal.io/">Docksal</a>, <a href="https://ddev.com/">DDEV</a>, <a href="https://lando.dev/">Lando</a>, and <a href="https://www.drupalvm.com/">DrupalVM</a>. Most attendee's(all?) at the BoF agreed that the need for an official local development environment was urgent and would greatly improve the experience for evaluators and new developers.</p> <p>This problem also relates to the issue <span class="drupalorg-gitlab-issue-link drupalorg-gitlab-link-wrapper"><a href="https://git.drupalcode.org/project/ideas/-/work_items/2956879" class="drupalorg-gitlab-link">https://git.drupalcode.org/project/ideas/-/work_items/2956879</a></span> which calls for a </p> <blockquote><p>new, opinionated "one-pager" guides that provide a single, recommended way to accomplish common tasks...Official Quick Start Guide (download &amp; install Drupal)</p></blockquote> <p>Creating this guide will be <strong>much more difficult</strong> without a recommended method for installing Drupal across multiple operating systems.</p> <p>Another related solution is <span class="drupalorg-gitlab-issue-link project-issue-status-info project-issue-status-7"><a href="https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/2911319" title="Status: Closed (fixed)">#2911319: Provide a single command to install &amp; run Drupal</a></span> which provides a command included with Drupal core and uses PHP's built in websever and SQLITE. This may help the evaluator experience but may not be sufficient for ongoing development of a Drupal site.</p> <h3 id="summary-proposed-resolution">Proposed resolution</h3> <p>Recommend DDEV as the solution to setup a local environment:</p> <ul> <li>update the documentation to remove all mentions of outdated methods such as xampp and local setup</li> <li>update the <a href="https://www.drupal.org/docs/official_docs/evaluator-guide">evaluator guide</a></li> <li>update the <a href="https://www.drupal.org/download">download page</a></li> <li>update the <a href="https://www.drupal.org/docs/getting-started/installing-drupal/drupal-quick-start-command">Drupal Quick Start Command</a></li> <li>Other high-ranking SEO pages with setup instructions (list TBD)</li> </ul> <h3 id="summary-outcome">Outcome</h3> <p>The proposal has been approved. DDEV is now the officially recommended solution.</p> > Related issue: [Issue #3398293](https://www.drupal.org/node/3398293)