Is there an equivalent in PHP development to using Mongrel/Webrick during Rails development?

I normally use Mongrel on port 3000 to serve up my Rails app during development.

Its been a couple of years since I've done PHP development. From what I recall, the method was to run Apache on the dev machine during PHP development (which involved setting up virtual domain in Apache etc....).

Is this still the case or is there a simpler method these days. Unfortunately a quick Google did not yield anything of interest.

Before I forget, the dev environment is on Debian Lenny. Ubuntu solutions also welcome.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Originally asked by: Nazar on Stack Overflow