Why does it feel like XAMPP is so much more setup then Web Matrix?

Originally, MAMP was for Mac and XAMPP was for windows. I've got a feeling this is no longer true because they all work on different platforms.. The name of each products describes the development 'stack'.

A stack is another way of referring to the technology you're using for your web-thing. E.g. MAMP I think stands for Mac, Apache, Mysql and PHP. There's a WAMP equivalent also (for Windows). In XAMPP, X stands for 'operating system' then you have Apache, MySQL, PHP, and PERL.

Web Matrix 2 looks to have a similar stack, however because it's a Microsoft product, it's probably geared for other Microsoft things like databases - maybe it's SQL instead of MySQL. The two have very subtle differences, but you might get by okay. The Treehouse courses that involve databases will use MySQL, so make sure you're ready for that!

Everything looks pretty much the same but there might be some restrictions/differences surrounding operating systems. It therefore comes down to personal preference but most importantly, your live set up. For example. if you're running a Linux server for the live project, then you're better off using a software that emulates that environment locally. The same would go for Windows etc...

A lot of my projects are set up on Linux servers, so I use MAMP (because Mac OS is a 'flavor' of Linux).

So explore everything, and use the best tool for the job :-)

Hope this helps