--- title: "From XAMPP to Ephemeral Postgres: Where “Works on My Machine” Has Led Us" url: https://daily.dev/posts/from-xampp-to-ephemeral-postgres-where-works-on-my-machine-has-led-us-j5xthzkxo source_url: https://neon.com/blog/from-xampp-to-ephemeral-postgres type: article source: "Neon" published: 2026-07-09T06:57:39.315Z updated: 2026-07-09T07:00:14.921Z tags: ["cloud", "docker", "postgresql"] reading_time: 9 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # From XAMPP to Ephemeral Postgres: Where “Works on My Machine” Has Led Us **[Neon](https://daily.dev/sources/neontech)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A historical journey through local development environments from the 1990s to today. Starting with manual Apache/PHP compilation in the 90s, through XAMPP/*AMP stacks in the 2000s, Docker containerization in the 2010s, and finally cloud-hosted environments in the 2020s. The narrative traces how 'it works on my machine' evolved from a real problem to a solved one, with each era's constraints driving the next innovation. The piece concludes that modern development is moving toward ephemeral, cloud-native environments where Postgres branching, GitHub Codespaces, and AI-powered tools mean your machine is just a terminal into a shared cloud environment. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Remote Dev Environments: Why Localhost is Dying](https://daily.dev/posts/remote-dev-environments-why-localhost-is-dying-okcwfgrur) · SitePoint · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Working software runs locally](https://daily.dev/posts/working-software-runs-locally-acfymodik) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why "It Worked on My Machine" Still Happens in 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/why-it-worked-on-my-machine-still-happens-in-2026-wu83ivzac) · freeCodeCamp · 48 upvotes · 2 comments --- Tags: [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#docker](https://daily.dev/tags/docker), [#postgresql](https://daily.dev/tags/postgresql) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/from-xampp-to-ephemeral-postgres-where-works-on-my-machine-has-led-us-j5xthzkxo)