...Drupal onto XAMPP

Not at all. XAMPP is for both type of Computer driven systems.

I would only advise you to take care that when you install with Windows systems you take a look of all
running services and by need you stop the one that can overload your windows PC and are not needed
for the Webserver.

This comment it's just a point of view. I just consider that sooner or later you may wish to change some
server characteristics and settings on your home pc or you have to take a look at the hosting server settings for making working some Drupal Modules that need particolar WebServer configuration. You will have to understand and learn the way XAMPP is structured. I did that before and at the and I found that it will be better for me to beginn from scratch and install my own WebServer at Home.

You may see an example of Home server at my site : Drupal Home Lan test environment

Cheers

Share your experience with the Open Source Community it's not only a choice but a Life Philosophy !!!
Some interesting A New Tutorial Site

Mark Griffith wrote: "But does this mean I am a fool to try to instal XAMPP on an MS/Windows machine, not a Unix device?"

I regularly use XAMPP on a USB stick, running under the Open Source Windows application PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/), to develop and test web applications. I've also installed XAMPP on my Windoze machine without any problems, but if you shove it on a stick then you don't need to worry about any clashing configs or Registry entries - it's all nicely self-contained. On a Mac, as you've likely figured, you can use MAMP (http://www.mamp.info/).

I know nothing about Drupal, being a complete newbie, but thought I'd reply to this as I know XAMPP.

Cheers

Fred