Deploying a web server fast-OS/Distro/Tools?

I'm interested in your opinion on this topic. Let's say you want a web server up for development or testing ASAP.

Here are some requirements, but feel free to discuss solutions that don't address all of them.

- Fast to deploy, without requiring to read a manual that is TL;DR
- As little configuration files to edit as possible, and all the configuration files contain commented guidelines and examples. Automation of the menial work would be very appreciable.
- Can be used for standard configurations (Apache+Mysql+Php) but also for less common ones (LightHttpd+FastCGI+Ruby+PostgreSql)
- FTP, SSH and SFTP
- Steps to take are not likely to change much in the next few years.
- Bonus requirement: secure and performant enough to be actually usable for production too.

>>18
These packages can work as an integrated development platform, but not as a true separate server for testing purposes. Saying that PHP is productive is very discutable though, there are a lot of cases where it slows down the development of web applications.

>>17
Those performance issues require sites hueg like xbox to be a problem.