"Web 2.0" - Where to start???

[MacVault]

Just wondering where to start as far as learning "Web 2.0" technologies, etc. for dynamic, database-driven, websites with Ajax-type user interfaces?

Are there any good database development tools for Mac OS X? Or only Windows?
Should I go with MySQL? PostgreSQL? Etc???
Are there any good PHP development tools for Mac OS X? Or only for Windows?
Are there any good UI (ajax/css/etc) tools for Mac OS X? Or only for Windows?
Should I go with Ruby on Rails instead of PHP?

What else am I missing? I use to code HTML and Lasso back in the day (~10 years ago). Now I want to get back into building database driven sites and there now seems to be so many different technologies to choose from. I'd love any advice on where to start!

 

[jng]

the best web 2.0 style guide is available at http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com

As for learning AJAX and integrating it, that is much more difficult, but here are some starting points:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/gettingstartedwithajax
http://www.sitepoint.com/subcat/javascript
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/AJAX:Getting_Started