It really depends on what you want to do (that 'etc' part - very managerial - it's going to burn you) and where/how you want your local server experience to go. So ... I think apache is your best option, followed by lighthttpd and then followed by the myraid of lightweight http servers on cpan.

And what OS you're using plays a big part too. OS X all ready comes with apache (I think), on windows, xampp is going to be fairly easy to install while most modern linux distros have what, 87 or so different web servers to choose?

update:doh! didn't see linux in the title ... ubuntu has about a dozen http servers ... I'd stick with apache.