It's funny how all of these complexities are put in place to make software as convenient for the user as possible, but in doing so it just ramps up the difficulty for the developers. There are some sites out now that do try and make the setup as easy as possible while keeping the power that the "overhead" yields. Nitrous.io orchardup.github.io/fig and bowery.io do a great job in simplifying the setup. This laracast explains it all pretty well: https://laracasts.com/lessons/bowery-is-pretty-darn-insanely...