I would say a developer could be considered intermediate if their expertise in a language is of a certain level in general even though there are areas that they have never had the need to explore (using the GD library for example - although I have used that in a digital signage project several years ago) and even though until recently they have never had the need to work in any other local type of environment than xampp, etc. The use of virtual machines for development is not a requirement for being proficient in php, maybe just useful. I would be interested in finding out how many self-proclaimed intermediate php coders regularly use local virtual environments other than xampp, wamp, etc. And I am sure that all developers who consider themselves intermediate have reached that level by Googling for answers to their issues and working hard to resolve them themselves, but I find it difficult to believe that they are always successful using this approach and never have to ask for help. I would suggest that only the experts, gurus and godlike developers never have to ask for help.