Recently, I've written a tutorial on how to install WP under Nginx, soon lighttpd and other options as well, including virtual machines.
The benefit is, nginx only takes 2MB of computer memory, which is much more friendly for desktop environment.
http://blogbuildingu.com/wordpress/install-wordpress-wemp
I am sure this would be helpful to Weblogtoolscollection.com's readers.
-Hendry