But be cautious - they all have their non-monetary price!

Personally... I started out with Easyphp. It is a snap to install (it's an .exe file) and will get you running fast. It worked great while I was learning PHP and coding small scripts. Then I shopped around and after looking at many different hosting companies like "BlueHost" and "godaddy" I finally chose 1and1.com for a place on the internet to host my first site. Recently I deleted Easyphp as I needed more power for my advanced scripts and took an old computer and installed XP and WAMP on it so that I can build and test my sites on my own personal network and then upload the files to 1and1. So the choice is yours, just remember that if you install a web server, you need to SECURE it BEFORE YOU GO ONLINE! Otherwise someone might use it to gain control of your PC!