I enjoy using the powerful NetBeans IDE for all my PHP web development work, and believe it or not, installing it in Ubuntu is actually pretty simple to achieve.
First, download the necessary .sh install file from http://netbeans.org/downloads/. Ensure the platform is set to Linux (x86/x64) and click on the link of the associated PHP installer download (31 MB).
Once the download has completed, run the following command to initiate the install:
sudo bash ~/Downloads/netbeans-6.9.1-ml-php-linux.sh
Follow the onscreen instructions and Bob’s you uncle. That easy to get a fantastic PHP IDE setup on your Ubuntu machine in just about no time at all! :)
Note: You’ll find the program shortcut under the Programming menu entry under your main system’s Applications menu.
(Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat)