WINDOWS vs LINUX

[ack]

Can anyone tell me the Pros to using Linux/PHP over Windows/ASP ?

I understand its open source and the beauty of that, but I talking about performance...

I am and have been a Windows ASP developer, yet when I poke around the net, I see huge resources and support for PHP and so much more flexibility, I am contemplating maybe I should start learning this platform instead...

It seems to be so popular - so much more than ASP

??

[felgall]

Can anyone tell me the Pros to using Linux/PHP over Windows/ASP ?

I understand its open source and the beauty of that, but I talking about performance...

I am and have been a Windows ASP developer, yet when I poke around the net, I see huge resources and support for PHP and so much more flexibility, I am contemplating maybe I should start learning this platform instead...

It seems to be so popular - so much more than ASP

??

The biggest PRO for using Linux hosting is that it is what is used for the vast majority of the internet meaning that it has all the same advantages for the net as Windows does on the desktop. It is mostly the big companies that already have a resource of pople in-house with the Windows knowledge that use Windows/.NET rather than Linux/PHP. Only a few really old sites that were created back in the stone age still use ASP as Microsoft phased that out a very long time ago.

[Early Out]

For a webhost, there are also some big disadvantages to Windows.

First are the licensing fees for the Windows server OS, which I gather are pretty steep.

Second is the difficulty of customizing Windows to suit the web host's needs and desires - tweaking a *nix (Unix, Linux, CentOS, etc.) installation is a lot easier.

Third is that the Windows OS chews up a lot more overhead on a server than *nix, so you end up needing more horsepower to take care of a comparable user load.

In the highly-competitive web host market, those three things will chew up your profit margin in a hurry.

[felgall]

In the highly-competitive web host market, those three things will chew up your profit margin in a hurry.

Thats why Windows hosting for those people who specifcally require it is always a lot more expensive than Linux hosting.

[ShadoDragon]

Another Pro to Linux over Windows is: Historically, Linux is a much more stable OpSys (Operating System) than Windows. Linux machines have far fewer problems than Windows machines do.

I used to work for a company that offered both Linux and Windows hosting. I got far more support requests on the Windows machines than I did the Linux machines

[dyessick]

Also with open source one does not have to worry about the day when the product is no longer "supported."

Don

[quickcrx702]

I would use Linux unless you HAVE to use Windows, it would be cheaper, more reliable, and more flexible to your needs. However, an example of where you would HAVE to use Windows/IIS/MS SQL/etc would be if you were doing Sharepoint development or something similar that is based off of Microsoft products. Although it would be pretty funny to see someone do some magic with WINE and get it to run, it would most likely run horribly.

[wysiwyg]

They're popular because both linux and php are free.

The reason for learning ASP is to get paid more by the same suckers paying extra for windows servers.

[GoTalkAboutIt]

Being both a PHP and .Net developer, I've seen both sides of the field.

Obviously, .Net sites and applications need a Windows server to run (mostly). However, Windows servers can also PHP applications just the same as a Linux server can. At least on a dedicated Windows server, you have the option to install Apache to run everything that a Linux server runs, such as mod_rewrite, PHP, etc. On a linux box, you are usually stuck with PHP development.

Speaking for larger projects, MSSQL also tends to be more stable, faster, and more suitable rather than MySQL.

Linux, however, offers a better price (by far) for hosting. It's free, PHP is free, MySQL is free, etc. I've read over and over about how Linux servers also process PHP much faster, but that has been debated as of the release of Windows Server 2008 (which you should get if you can!!).

Depending on your knowledge and budget for a server itself, go with a Windows Server box. You can do both .Net as well as everything you could with a Linux box!

[alemcherry]

Speaking for larger projects, MSSQL also tends to be more stable, faster, and more suitable rather than MySQL.

Thats true. But for 99% of sites, there is no reason to pay for a MSSQL server. A very small percentage of websites really needs all the bells and whistles offered by MSSQL or Oracle.

Having worked on both environments I have no doubts that devoloping and maintainig PHP is a way lot easier than ASP.net. Classic asp was easy as well, but it is dead and never had the kind of free scripts, examples etc. that we have with PHP. Also with classic ASP, you need a component to be installed for any complex operation, which is not practical in shared hosting env.

So for small/medium websites, which makes wast majority of net, PHP offers faster development time, lot of free scripts, cheaper hosting and so on.