Installing a web server is very easy in Ubuntu, just enter a few lines in the terminal: There is no need to install and configure each part of a LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) installation individually. You can also install other programs this way. The downside is that all components are installed automatically, and not reviewed by you. But as long as you only use the web server locally (localhost or 127.0.0.1), and don't open up for access from the Internet, it should be safe.