[CentOS] Are PHP and MySQL running on my CentOS installation?

[Dave Gutteridge]

Thank you for the helpful advice. I have not yet undertaken some of the
steps recommended here, but I will soon and report back anything that
requires further clarification.

But I did want to speak to this issue of whether or not this is an
appropriate place to address these issues.

First, let me clarify that this issue is not how to run PHP or MySQL in
general. It's that I thought I had installed these applications when I
installed CentOS. To determine whether or not they are working is in
part a matter of trying to find out how much I can assume about the
CentOS installation process. Was the PHP application offered in the
installer the full PHP service I need to run PHP scripts on my computer?
I think this is at least, in some ways, related to CentOS, as it's
CentOS which is the environment that has determined what version of PHP
I'm running and what settings it has.

But further than that, when I was first looking for a Linux
distribution, one of my criteria was trying to find one that had a large
and helpful community of support. For the most part, this list and the
CentOS community has met that need.

But I will have questions where, like in this instance, I am not so sure
about the borders between the application and the operating system, and
I need help clarifying that so that I can take my queries to the right
place for the right reasons. I mean, I don't understand why questions I,
and others, have had about installing and configuring (and even running)
KDE, Gnome, Gpilot, YUM, and installing OpenOffice and other
applications were answered here without comment about their suitability
for this list, but how to install and configure PHP is deemed
inappropriate.

I'm looking for a community that is looking to help me get into the
world of Linux, via their distribution. If the CentOS community is not
that kind of community, one that helps Newbies, then that would be a
little sad as I've invested so much work in getting CentOS to meet my
needs, and I've felt that overall the CentOS community has been very
welcoming. But if this group, or it's moderators, do not have the
patience to help a newbie who does not know why a YUM installation
question is on topic but a PHP installation question isn't, please
direct me to the community and or distribution that is.

Thank you.

Dave