A sorry situation (Score 1, Informative)

The fact that PHP and MySQL are the most deployed tools for web development is a rather sorry situation, given the deep shortcomings of both tools.

See these articles about the many PHP warts:

Experiences of Using PHP in Large Websites

Why PHP sucks

The PHP Ghetto

You will be happier with a more mature and complete dynamic language like Python, or even (gasp ;-) ) Ruby.

Similarly, see these other articles about the many MySQL warts:

MySQL Hate

MySQL Gotchas

Compare the last one with the one for PostgreSQL:

PostgreSQL Gotchas

Finally, an in-depth comparison between MySQL and PostgreSQL on Slashdot itself:

Comparing MySQL and PostgreSQL 2

Finally, recall that both MySQL's transactional backends are now controlled by Oracle:

Oracle Acquires Sleepycat

Avoid both PHP and MySQL as much as you can, I say. There's better stuff out there.