what is Future PHP or .NET

[Web Designer Leeds]

I found .NET an easy platform to develop for. It isnt so expensive to use considering the power of the applications you can build.

[ireneherz]

I use a free, excellent editor from Microsoft called Net Matrix. The only extra expense for me in using .NET is that hosting is maybe $1 more a month, although I'm finding GOOD hosting companies aren't cheap and offer both Microsoft and LINUX.

[WebDatum]

first off the question has been asked and only gets asked by someone looking to start a battle... when in reality they both are the future and there are more languages out there... you want to get paid to code... you better know your stuff in a few different languages.

ASP is best on its platform... PHP best on its platform... JSP best on other platforms.

Trying to decide between them is stupid. Learn them all and as many as possible.

I started learning C... now when I approach a C based language it's just a matter of laerning the specific functions of that language.

All languages that are out there are pretty much capable... it is the programmer that is often the weak link.

Go and learn... multiple platforms, multiple languages... that is how you stay employed.

[rumblepup]

I have to disagree that .net is not free like php. The .net runtime is available for download completely for free, and hosting can be just as, if not cheaper than linux or unix hosting. Developing asp.net applications is as easy as opening up notepad, and there are just as many open source projects available as there are for the famed PHP LAMP set. As far as security is concerned, there is another online magazine called e-w**k (let's not name the competition) that hosts a completely open hack competition called OpenHack(duh.) There where two servers set up, one running an ASP.NET application (asp.net 1.0) and another running an Oracle/Sun Java application.

The ASP.Net application survived 80,000 hack attempts without compromise. The Oracle application went about 25,000 hack attempts with two breaches of security. And that was the first go around.

And Linux/Unix hosting is not as completely secure as it's made out to be. I seem to remember some rather big holes (that in all fairness, where closed up rather quickly) that were exploited just this past year.

Both PHP and ASP are prone to spaghetti coding, which I now absolutely hate, because I've seen first hand the easy and intuitive layer based system of asp.net. Of course, the premier development package for asp.net is Visual Studio.net, which ain't cheap even to Trump, but the .netMatrix is an open source app that you can easily use to create asp.net pages.

I think that MySQL and PostgreSQL are great databases, and I've seen fantastic functionality from them, but one of my partners is a developer who used to work with Lockhead Martin Skunk Works. He's developed in everything from BASIC to Zebra, has worked on databases from Access to MySQL, and his opinion is mine, when your back is to the wall, and only the absolute best is neccesary, you go with SQL and .net. I ain't anywhere near a coder (just an fan,) but when a developer of that stature, who really has no preference (name it, he'll code in it) tells me something that straight up, I tend to listen.

[xmx]

I personally prefer PHP.

Not only because I regularly use Linux.

I personally had too much troble from the MS products,
both for the operating system of my PC and for servers
of webhosting services. I can't feel fully confident
with what arrives from them.

[igor1]

for professional use I see JSP.

[HardCoded]

I found .NET an easy platform to develop for. It isnt so expensive to use considering the power of the applications you can build.

What power does it have that PHP doesn't have? I maintain it has no extra powers, and that therefore it is infinitely more expensive.

Plus there is the well known, well documented security risks that made everyone want to use Linux over Windows in the first place. Plus there is the constant pain in the ass of patching your live server weekly or whatever it is. Plus you have to pay through the nose whenever you need some COM object or ISAPI thing to do what apache and PHP can do for free.

Jay Drake mentions the only good reason there is to try to learn .NET - that for some bizarre reason it seems to be more in-demand jobs wise. Otherwise I wouldn't even consider it.

On a related note, I'm pretty sick and tired of all those webmaster ads that demand skill in a particular software package, like DW or PS. Who comes up with this stuff? Some retard in HR? Why do they care what I use to get the job done?

[hotwheel]

You will find your weekend warriors use PHP but how many enterprise applications are deployed using that technology?

Java is the language I would focus on. Hey, it's free too! And it's open source community has great tools like templating layers, build tools, logging, database extraction layers, MVC frameworks etc.

And deploying Java on any platform isn't hard (client and/or server apps).

[jitender]

hi all

i feel php has good feature, it has so many opensource, mostly all feature aviable, but ofcourse not powerful like .net

regards
jitender

[yugg]

I don't think I have seen so many answers in one forum before! You seem to have touched people's hearts with this one!

However, you seem to be concerned primarily about find a job and career, in which case the relative merits of Php and .Net should be totally irrelevant to you. The only question to ask is, "Where are the jobs?"

You can see the answer if you go to the the IT job sites (something I wish I had done when I moved in to web development)and see what jobs they have, but the short answer is that 90% of all web development jobs are in .Net and, to a slightly lesser extent, Java. Case closed, so far as shaping out a career is concerned. (This is the case in the UK, but I imagine it,s the same in the US and most other countries). Have a look at JayDrake's replies here as well.

As a professional programmer of many years I moved in to web development mainly to earn some money off websites, but I did consider it might also be useful in future jobs. But I took the Php/Unix route because that seemed to be a more robust platform and doesn't suffer Microsoft's apalling security record.

Now I wish I had taken the .Net route because there are very few Php jobs around. There are many projects on the freelance sites, but they seem to have about a thousand applicants each! I can switch and learn .net easily enough but the job market in the UK is sewn up by parasites who call themselves recruitment agencies (do you have that problem in the US?) and in their simple tick-the-skills-box mentality they can't envisage how a professional programmer with several languages and platforms already under his belt can easily move to another platform; he must have two years or more in a skill before they will consider it. They are so simple minded that many of them think C++ is no good if their job spec says C/C++. Apart from which they are ageist, sexist and, probably, racist as well if you could only catch them at it!

And yes, I don't like recruitment agencies! Does that touch anyone's nerve! They are a blot on the IT landscape. Ok, rant over. Go for .net if you want a career.