I have a similar setup as you – work on a mac with a Debian testing box. I've always run a local server with PHP and MySQL to run things natively, but have been

I have a similar setup as you – work on a mac with a Debian testing box. I've always run a local server with PHP and MySQL to run things natively, but have been moving more and more to working on the testing box. My favorite software for this is Coda (www.panic.com/coda). I use the built in SVN support of Coda to setup a repository on the dev box. I also set up a dev domain (dev.domain.com or beta.domain.com). I use the local server on my Mac to run rapid quick testing changes and then use the GUI on coda to see which files need to get pushed to SVN or the dev domain. Oh and for MySQL, can't live without Sequel Pro.