My advice to you is ... dump xampp and go with Docker. Particularly with vscode you can use docker as a Dev environment as you would with your local filesystem.
Also consider that in 99% of the time a web app will run on a Linux system or a Linux backed container. Eventually you will start hitting the differences.
Overkill in what sense? You don't have to learn it straight off but you can use it in the sense that you can install it and everything else comes from the IDE
My advice to you is ... dump xampp and go with Docker. Particularly with vscode you can use docker as a Dev environment as you would with your local filesystem.
Also consider that in 99% of the time a web app will run on a Linux system or a Linux backed container. Eventually you will start hitting the differences.
Isn't docker a bit of an overkill for someone who's just started learning PHP?
Overkill in what sense? You don't have to learn it straight off but you can use it in the sense that you can install it and everything else comes from the IDE
You're right, stick to Xampp/Wamp/EasyPHP for now, it's the better tool when you are starting to learn this language.