Minulle referoitiin artikkelia, jossa henkilö perusteli yrityksensä vaihtoa ASP.NETistä PHP:hen.
Kommentoin asiaa hieman, sillä kyseinen artikkeli oli otettu vähän
liian vahvasti "jumalan sanana", vaikka kirjoittaja itsekin totesi
asian olevan vain heidän näkökantansa ja heidän tarpeidensa sanelemaa.
I
was referred to this article as an example of people switching to PHP
from ASP.NET. I'd like to point out a few things since most of the
comments are overly positive about this switch.
1. It's not a
problem with the platform that people aren't available for it. People
learn new things all the time, but I know it's not a solution when you
need 20 people for a project yesterday.
2. Naturally "simple and
quick" solutions might be possible with PHP, but they are as possible
with ASP.NET. Many real world applications aren't "simple and quick."
And also remember: the right tool for each task.
3. Cost is not
that big of an issue. You don't need SQL Server, you've got for example
PostgreSQL. You don't need MSDN, or at least any part of it that
requires paying. Visual Studio is great, but not necessary for
development. Just use any editor you like. And you can always deploy
Web Server Edition or purchase hosting solution. If you want your own
server, it's the only thing you pay for. Everything else you need is
free. Really.
4. If you can't get servers to work, look in the
mirror and in the hardware first. Think what are the only common
nominators: you as the developers and admins. What could be the problem
then, since others can do it without problems. People can run
development machines for years without problems, they can run servers
for months without reboots and software they wrote doesn't stop working
suddenly. Funny, isn't it?
5. Security is a problem everywhere
and as someone already stated, it's strange that you'd leave your
servers without upgrades while stating that Linux/Apache/PHP have
vulnerabilities.
6. Platform independence is better with PHP, so
if you need that, it is a good reason. Mono has gone a long way and
might even be a possibility for ASP.NET hosting nowadays.
7. This
relates to the point 1, since there are not that many people using it,
communities are smaller. But also there is a lot of crap in the larger
PHP communities, so you must be careful in believing everything you see
in forums and using all the code samples you find. There have been lots
of problems when people don't understand the code they use.
8.
Lots of samples for ASP.NET too, but naturally PHP has been around for
a lot longer. Also lots of crappy samples for PHP out there. People
must be careful.
9. There is nothing IE specific about ASP.NET
nor is PHP any better in this sence. So this is total FUD and should be
treated as such. Web site developers do the code, not the platform.
10.
As known for so long, superstars are usually comets. Many times they
don't last that long and many times they aren't that great. They only
appear to be, but after a while you realize the truth. I'm not saying
your guy isn't an exception, just that there are lots of people in
trouble because they blindly trust random people. (Yes, I don't expect
anyone to blindly trust me either, that's not what this writing is
about ;)
I hope people read the second to last paragraph and
undestand it, since it's where you state the most important: this is
the situation where you and only you are, so this is your decision. I
respect that and even more I respect the fact that you understand it.
Without that paragraph the whole text could've been random rantings,
but now it's a description about your findings.
Hope you'll be
happy with your new platform, I know I will be with ASP.NET and won't
go back to PHP (which I used for many years before ASP.NET came out).
Still my database of choice isn't MS's and I'm not paying them lots of
money just because I use their stuff. Why should anyone else? You have
the choice.