Setting up PHP server

Hi, a bit of advice please.
I am looking to move from .Net website development to PHP development and looking for advice on the best way to set up my server.

My options (i believe)  currently are :
1) Manually install Apache, MySQL, PHP, etc and configure it yourself.
2) Install such an environment automatically using a special package, such as DAMP, WAMP or MAMP. (https://www.acquia.com/downloads looked good to me)
3) Use a virtual machine to set up your server in its own environment

any advice one preferred solutions
option 1) to set up from scratch is probably my preferred solution being bit of a control freak
2) Appears to be a nice and easy method, just a bit concerned if I would be able to upload to production server (particularly the database) and also would it be an issue using more than one CMS system in development. (are these issue relevant or should I not worry)
3) I could set up sites on remote servers for development. Are there any issues with this. can you easily copy a live site set it up as a dev site on another remote server (i appreciate that this is effectively live) and develop there.

Which of these options are your preferred solution, or do you have a different set up. Our main development precess will be purchasing themes and developing them on Dreamweaver / Adobe creative cloud

Your thoughts/ views / opinions would be so welcome.