I'm really happy with the environment I have. It's based on the MAMP php/Apache/mySql server.

The environment I have had for a while now is basically:

• Local server – MAMP (MySQL, Apache and PHP5). Since I’m a designer by heart I wanted a really simple interface to start with and Mamp gave me that.
• Mac and Windows environment. Through Parallels Desktop I can run Windows XP which is really valuable when testing sites, scripts and such.
• A bunch of browsers for both Mac and Win; Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera.

That base will get you a long way, but it might be a good idea to check your stuff with Browsershots.org that will batch render your site in a vast amount of browsers and platforms. Or check out Litmus new Alkaline app. The downside with those services is that you get a astatic render of the site you are testing so interaction, javascipt and such cannot be tested, thats why I bought Parallells to run XP on.

Googles Chrome browser is picking up speed but it’s still not available for Mac, so if you to check your site in Chorme you can install CrossOver Chromium. It’s a ported version of Chorme developed on the Wine open source project. Be aware that CrossOver Chromium is still a test so don’t rely too hevily on it yet.

For hosting I’m using Bluehost (US) and Binero (Swe).

When developing sites iPhoney is a good Mac iPhone simulator running webkit.

When developing sites it might also be good to check them in a mobile interface. If you don’t want to flip your iPhone out every minute you can install the iPhoney desktop application. It simulates browsing in the iPhone and is built on Safari/Webkit. iPhoney is only available for the Mac.

Coding software.
Which web development software you use is a matter of taste as long as you don’t use crap like Frontpage or any other app that generates code for you via a wysiwyg interface. Your site is doomed to be filled with tons of crapcode and you’ll learn nothing.

Personally I have switched from Dreamweaver to Coda about a year ago, and I must say that I really love Coda. As soon as you get that basic knowledge in HTML, XHTML, CSS you should get an app that lets you handcode your own sites. In that way you learn more and get much better control of what you are doing … or at least what you are trying to do :-)

Browser plugins and other tools.
There are tons of addons and plugins for you to use. Some of the ones I use for development and debugging is:

Firebug - one of the most popular addons for Firefox. It gives you full overview of your site/components. Has really good debugging features like DOM-, CSS-, Html-, script-inspectors among others.

YSlow – analyses what, when and how fast every component of your site loads. So if you have a slow site, install YSlow and find out whats causing the lag.

CSS Edit – Initially I used CSS edit, but after a while I switched to Firebug and Codas built in DOM-inspector. CSS Edit gives you a custom browser in which you can examine your DOM elements and classes. One of the best things with CSS Edit is that you can create local CSS overrides for existing websites.

When developing column based designs Gridfox lets you set up your custom guides.

Gridfox – If you have built your own CSS framework or are using an existion one Gridfox lets you create guiding columns to aid your development. You can specify number of columns, widths, padding and more.