Development Environment
Dotkernel's local environment runs AlmaLinux 10 - inside WSL 2 on Windows, or on bare
metal with no WSL at all. One Ansible playbook installs PHP, Apache, MariaDB, Composer, Node.js and
phpMyAdmin, and every project gets its own *.localhost virtualhost without touching a hosts file.
Comparison with Popular Stacks
Here is a direct comparison between the Dotkernel WSL2 stack, XAMPP, Laragon, DDEV, and Docker to help you choose the best development environment for your workflow.
| Feature |  Dotkernel WSL2 (AlmaLinux 10) |
 XAMPP |
 Laragon |
 DDEV |
 Docker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Use Case | RHEL-compatible PHP stack on Windows, provisioned by one Ansible playbook. | Quick all-in-one Apache/MariaDB/PHP/Perl stack for local development. | Fast, portable PHP/Node development stack on Windows. | Per-project PHP/CMS (and Node.js) development environments built on Docker. | General-purpose containerization for any tech stack. |
| Core Architecture | AlmaLinux 10 running in WSL 2's lightweight utility VM (real Linux kernel), or directly on bare metal. Services run natively inside the distro. | Native executables run as host processes (optionally as services). | Portable native Windows binaries; doesn't use Windows Services. | Orchestration layer that generates and runs Docker containers per project, plus a shared router. | Containers sharing the host kernel on Linux; on Windows/macOS, Docker Desktop runs the engine inside a Linux VM (WSL2/Hyper-V or Apple Virtualization). |
| Depends On | Windows virtualization support (WSL 2); nothing extra on bare AlmaLinux 10. | Nothing. | Nothing. | A Docker provider (Docker CE, Docker Desktop, OrbStack, Rancher, etc.); on Windows, usually WSL2. | Native on Linux; WSL2 or Hyper-V on Windows; a VM on macOS. |
| OS Support | Windows 10 1903+ (x64) or 2004+ (ARM64), Windows 11, Windows Server 2022/2025; bare-metal AlmaLinux 10. | Windows and Linux (PHP up to 8.2.12); macOS build lags (PHP up to 8.2.4). | Windows only. | macOS, Windows (WSL2 or traditional), Linux, GitHub Codespaces. | Windows, macOS, Linux. |
| Resource Usage | Low to Medium (small idle footprint; WSL 2 memory grows dynamically, capped by default at a share of host RAM). | Low (runs directly on host processes). | Very Low (lightweight, no background services). | Medium to High (Docker overhead plus several containers per project; varies by provider). | Low on native Linux; Medium to High with Docker Desktop's VM. |
| Environment Isolation | Separate Linux filesystem and kernel from Windows; projects share one Apache/PHP/MariaDB install, each with its own *.localhost virtualhost. |
None (shared global install, ports, and PHP version). | Self-contained install, no per-project isolation (projects share services and the active PHP version). | Container-level per project (own web and DB containers), with a shared router on ports 80/443. | Container-level (process, filesystem, and network namespaces; shared kernel, so weaker than a VM). |
| Production Parity | High for RHEL-family servers (same dnf, systemd, and package sources as AlmaLinux/Rocky/RHEL production); not image-identical. |
Low (Windows paths and config differ from production; vendor states it's not for production). | Low (Windows paths differ from Linux servers). | High if versions are matched (standardized Linux containers, not your production images). | High; identical only if the exact same image is deployed to production. |
| PHP Version Switching | php81 … php85 aliases (Remi modules). |
One PHP version per install; switching means a different installer. | Switch between installed PHP versions from the menu. | Per-project php_version in config. |
Per image / per container. |
| Default Versions | PHP 8.5, MariaDB 12.3 LTS, Node.js 24. | PHP 8.2.12, MariaDB 10.4.32 (Windows build). | User-selectable. | Configurable per project. | Defined by the image. |
| License / Cost | Free, open source (MIT). | Free, open source. | Laragon 6 free; 7+ free for non-commercial use (with license reminders), paid license for commercial use. | Free, open source. | Docker Engine free and open source; Docker Desktop requires a paid subscription for orgs with 250+ employees or $10M+ revenue. |
The same OS family your servers run
AlmaLinux is a RHEL-compatible distribution, so the packages, package manager and service
conventions you use locally - dnf, systemd and the rest - are the ones you will see again in
staging and production. WSL 2 puts that distro on a Windows machine without a second computer or a
Windows-native rebuild of every tool.
Everything from Setup Packages onwards also runs on a bare AlmaLinux 10 host without WSL - the
Ansible playbooks do not know or care which one they are provisioning. Connect over SSH, and use
the server's IP address instead of localhost when you test it.
RHEL-compatible, matches production
One playbook, the whole stack
Virtualhosts without touching hosts file
Aliases for switching PHP & Node versions
Three steps to a running shell
Steps 1 and 2 run in Windows Terminal and step 3 in the AlmaLinux 10 shell; step 2 ends inside the new distro with a quick systemd check. The full walkthrough, prompts and all, is in the docs.
1 . Terminal & requirements
On Windows 11, install Windows Terminal, then check for a modern WSL 2 install. If
wsl --version isn't recognized, install WSL 2 with
wsl --install --no-distribution and restart when prompted.
wsl --version
2 . Install AlmaLinux 10
Stop any other running distro, then install AlmaLinux 10 and create your Unix username and password when prompted.
wsl --install -d AlmaLinux-10
Before moving on, confirm systemd is active inside AlmaLinux 10 - the playbook needs it. If the
check below prints an error instead of a status, add systemd=true under
[boot] in /etc/wsl.conf, run wsl --shutdown from Windows
Terminal and reopen the distro.
systemctl is-system-running
3 . Setup packages
Inside AlmaLinux 10, update the system, add the EPEL and Remi repositories, and install
ansible-core with the community.general and community.mysql
collections. Then clone the alma-linux-10 branch of dotkernel/development,
copy wsl/config.yml.dist to config.yml, fill in your Git identity and
MariaDB root password, and run the playbook from development/wsl.
ansible-playbook -i hosts install.yml --ask-become-pass
Not using WSL? Skip straight to Setup Packages on a bare AlmaLinux 10 host - the same playbook runs
there unchanged; test it with the server's IP address instead of localhost.
After setup, Editor Integration connects VS Code or PhpStorm, and WSL Configuration covers where to keep projects and how to cap WSL's memory and CPU.
What one playbook installs
install.yml reads config.yml once and provisions every one of these - safe to re-run if a
step fails partway through.
| Component | What you get |
|---|---|
| Web server | Apache, with virtualhosts routed automatically under *.localhost. |
| Database | MariaDB 12.3 from the MariaDB repository, plus phpMyAdmin for browsing it. |
| PHP | 8.5 by default via the Remi repository; php81 … php85 aliases switch
versions. |
| Node.js | 24 by default via NodeSource; node18 … node24 aliases switch versions. |
| Git & Composer | Your Git identity from config.yml, and the latest Composer at install time; update
it later with composer self-update. |
Every project, its own subdomain
api.dotkernel.localhost and frontend.dotkernel.localhost can point at two different
projects on the same machine, and Apache routes both without a single edit to the Windows hosts
file - any *.localhost domain is routed automatically.
List the domains you want under config.yml's virtualhosts key and run
create-virtualhost.yml - a separate playbook you re-run for every new project, without
repeating install.yml.
Existing entries are left untouched, so you keep adding to the same file as your project grows.
One playbook, every domain
In development/wsl/config.yml, under config.virtualhosts:
config:
virtualhosts:
- "api.dotkernel.localhost"
api.dotkernel.localhost is only an example - use any name your project needs, such as
laravel.localhost or shop.localhost, as long as it ends in
.localhost and uses only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens. Add one list item per
project.
Then provision it:
ansible-playbook -i hosts create-virtualhost.yml --ask-become-pass
Files go under /var/www/<your-domain>/html - for example
/var/www/api.dotkernel.localhost/html - with the document root at
html/public. html/public doesn't exist until you place a project there,
so the URL shows an error until then.
Common questions
The short version of the full FAQ - see the docs for the rest.
How do I switch PHP versions? +
Run sudo dnf module switch-to php:remi-{major}.{minor} -y, or use one of the
predefined aliases: php81, php82, php83, php84 or
php85.
How do I switch Node.js versions? +
Use one of the predefined aliases - node18, node20, node22 or
node24 - which reinstall Node.js from NodeSource at that major version.
How do I fix permission issues? +
Local development only: chmod -R 777 data, log or
public/uploads, whichever directory the error names. Don't carry this into
staging or production.
Where are the error logs? +
Apache: /var/log/httpd/error_log, plus
/var/www/<virtualhost>/log/error.log for each virtualhost. PHP-FPM:
/var/log/php-fpm/error.log and www-error.log.
How do I update Composer? +
sudo /usr/local/bin/composer self-update, then confirm with
composer --version.
How do I create command aliases? +
Add alias name="command" to .bash_profile in your home directory, then run
it like any other command.
How do I delete a virtualhost? +
Remove its folder under /var/www/, its Apache config and enabled-site symlink, then
sudo systemctl restart httpd.
Why does the playbook fail with a systemd error? +
systemd isn't active in the distro yet. Add systemd=true under [boot] in
/etc/wsl.conf, run wsl --shutdown from Windows Terminal, reopen
AlmaLinux 10 and re-run install.yml.
What if port 80 is already in use? +
Find the Windows service holding it with netstat -ano | findstr :80 and stop it, or
change Apache's Listen port in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and restart
httpd.
Is this environment safe to expose beyond localhost? +
No. It is for local development only: the MariaDB root password is stored in plaintext, phpMyAdmin allows root login and the firewall is off by default.
Can I run this without WSL? +
Yes - from Setup Packages onwards the steps are the same on a bare AlmaLinux 10 host. Skip the
WSL steps, connect over SSH, and use the server's IP address instead of
localhost.
Provision once, match your production OS
The WSL 2 + AlmaLinux 10 setup is maintained by the same team behind the rest of the Headless Platform, so the local environment stays on the same OS family as production - not a Docker approximation of it. It is a local development environment only: security is relaxed by default, so never expose it to a network.