I want to create a Discussion Forum (like this one here) for my specific industry.
I intended to learn PHP and MySQL, and then use my Linux PC attached to a broadband connection using Apache 2.0 as my web server. I will need to buy a domain, and hopefully that is all.

Is this the best way of going about this?

I am fairly familiar with perl CGI, HTML, Relational Database (Sybase) and Linux.
I just want to make sure that it is PHP I need to learn.

I also wonder if it might be easier to have someone else host this rather than have my PC always used. How expensive would it be roughly?

mate, use PHPBB

its free

you just need a PHP, MYSQL enabled server an it will do the rest

Jaydiocity.co.uk

Yes, it would be more efficient and reliable to purchase shared hosting. You can get decent packages for < $10/month. Search this forum for shared host recommendations.

Learning PHP will not be difficult for someone with a perl background. I started with perl and moved to PHP and was pleased with how easy the transition was. Of course, you can create your forum using Perl & mySQL (I think cpan should have some perl mysql modules), so technically there's no reason to learn PHP except that it's a little more "high level" and does a lot of nice things to make your life easier.

-SN