Richard, Joel M <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> If you're looking just to learn and not spend any money at all, you
> could always set up a Linux flavor running on VirtualBox.

Second that.

> It's a lot of effort and I daresay you'd learn a lot about many
> things, but it may not be viable.

Really?  I think it's pretty simple:

  (1) Install VB from <http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.0.4/VirtualBox-4.0.4-70112-Win.exe>.
  (2) Download a CD image of Ubuntu from <http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download>.
  (3) Fire up VB, say "new machine", and point it at the Ubuntu CD file.  Let Ubuntu install.
  (4) In Ubuntu, say "sudo apt-get install yaz php5".

Should get you at least part of the way there.

Bill