"VERY NEWBIE" php_* mod_* --with-* question

Hello List for the first time, I am very new to php but impressed from what i've seen so far. I managed to configure php w/ mysql and db2 do some selects, inserts ... What I am inerested in is what are all those mod_php* and php_* on the distribution's CDs e.g. if they are installed how do i get support for which i thought i have installed the module( like rpm -i php-oracle-4.2.2-1j1.i686.rpm means that i can somehow get oracle support without recompiling php ??? or no). Another thing that bothers me is should I (can I) use for example Oracle's apache or install "regular" apache and work with it. Is Apache-PHP-Linux on one machine and OracleDB-Win/Lin on another machine big trouble or peace of cake (It asks me for oci8 lib which I don't know where to get if I don't want to install any oracle products on the web server (can i get them from php-oci8...rpm for example) DSO e.g. oracle.so is a shared object but where to include it for the support and is it enough) Thank you all and looking forward to hearing from you