Hi Paul,
interesting question, and to tell you the truth I don't have very concise answers except for the fact their are many web servers running the amp combination, it's free both in monetry terms and that I can edit it if I wanted to, considering the whole, cheap OpenSource thing.
Otherwise, I just love the structure of it, and that it is interpreted meaning I don't struggle if I lose any source code.
When it comes to MS technologies, it is not that I hate them, it is just that I hafve chosen to develop in languages that are browser accomodating, unlike VBScript (which I was learning, but wouldn't work in my Mozilla Firefox).
I still use Windows XP Pro for my development platform, though I will eventually port over to Linux, but until then I can't leave the great MS boss man's work just because I don't admire certain aspects. He is a God among men as far as I am concerned.
Hope that sums it up...
I'm going to regret forging this...