A few years ago, I had the chance to meet Troy and during one conversation we had, he introduced me to a project he was working on: Bearsampp. I develop primarily under the Windows environment, which I have grown accustomed to from working at previous companies. I create numerous instances of Joomla for testing and for actual projects, therefore a reliable local server environment is critical. Bearsampp sounded interesting, and, even though I was all set (I thought), I decided to give it a try.

Remarkably, it went beyond my expectations.

First, the setup is effortless.

Unlike some other products, Bearsampp made setting up environments a breeze. Even configurations that had previously given me a hard time were straightforward here.
I headed to the project on GitHub and downloaded the full package (but you can go through the basic or lite versions - head to the FAQ page to see what is included in each). There is also a pre-requisite package you need to install to make sure you have everything you need on your system. Note that anything already on your system is not re-installed.

The toolset is comprehensive.

Bearsampp is a beast (the full package is over 1 Gb, all zipped) in a good way! It includes all the tools you can think of (and some you didn’t even know you needed). Whether it’s PHP, databases, or other development tool essentials, Bearsampp has you covered.

For instance, the addition of a mail server is extremely helpful when you need to test email transactions or Joomla mail templates locally.

When I served as Joomla release manager, the inclusion of features such as PostgreSQL and phpPgAdmin has simplified many aspects of my role, particularly when it came to creating and testing pull requests (PRs).

And when you create extensions for Joomla and need to support different versions on different configurations of PHP, MySQL, ..., switching between versions is so simple. A couple clicks and you are done! When I want to support new versions of PHP, for instance, I head to the Bearsampp's site, pick the module I want to update and select the needed release.

It made my life easier.

I know I am not using Bearsampp to its full potential, but using Bearsampp literally made my life easier. I found myself confidently adding features to my extensions that I didn’t known how to test properly before.

For example, with essential libraries like 'imagick' pre-installed, I’ve been able to offer a broader array of choices within my extensions for generating image thumbnails.

In summary, Bearsampp is a game-changer for developers like me. It's perfect for Joomla development, and is created by fellow Joomla enthusiasts, Troy and Jacob. 
Do you want to learn more? Dive into their story in the September 2022 issue of the Joomla Magazine.

But wait! Bearsampp keeps getting better. Since being featured in the magazine, 

• the updater has been improved,
• jQuery has been replaced with pure JavaScript,
• a password manager and a password generator made their way into the latest packages,
• the website has been revamped (especially the FAQ page),
• new methods have been implemented internally to create releases and update the module tables.

If you’re yet to experience Bearsampp, I encourage you take it for a test drive! You won't regret it.