I took the plunge at last and installed my own local server on my desktop, xampp. Took a few days to get my head round it but now have a fully installed RC2 )

yes .. a good thing to test installations and functions 

Fel

XAMPP is ok but IMO Vertrigo is much better. It is much quicker to start and shut down than XAMPP and I like the interface better as well.

yes...vertrigo is better!

When I installed xampp I was up and running without needing any special docs etc! with vertrigo I got presented with a black screen telling me server was started! No hint what to do next.

At the end of the day, as long as it works it's ok for me. I have smf RC2 and Coppermine 1.5.1 Alpha installed, there were no problems or install errors. I will install PMX updates when they become available.