I can approach this entry two ways: Be politically correct (geek-correct, in this case) and avoid the firestorm, or just say what I mean and hope folks get it in the context in which I’ve supplied it.
I’m opting for the latter, if for no other reason than….I’m not politically correct.
And it’s faster. If you’re upset by what follows…well, sorry. And OK. I’m not trying to please you.
I’m just giving an opinion.
Onward.
I read an interesting bit of info on the Netcraft newsletter for September.
In a nutshell, it said that there was surprising growth of PHP on Windows; PHP is currently targeted to overtake ColdFusion on Windows as the second most popular scripting language (behind ASP) on Windows sometime next year (2004). From the looks of the graphs, CF use was increasing, but PHP was rocketing.
I found this interesting.
I posted this to the House of Fusion CF Talk Archive RE: a question about if CF use was increasing/decreasing.
My link to Netcraft and analysis (“does not bode well for CF in general”) was of course flamed. But it’s a CF list, so OK. Some folks were logical, some gave thought to responses, others responded in the best “{pick your poison} is the devil!” mode.
Whatever.
But I was thinking about all this today, and one thing stuck me that I had not thought about before: Most Linux distros come with PHP; often the default is to install this and mySQL (another freebie; a database). Obviously, CF – an expensive product ( ~$1,000 for single server; though a single IP server is free with most of it’s products) – is not bundled on the OSS disk – but it does run faster on Linux than Windows (!).
OK.
So, to run PHP on Linux is, well, either expected or the only choice beyond Perl (or JSP if you want to go that far; let’s not. No CF, no ASP are freebies).
So one expects PHP to be on Linux.
While PHP is free on Windows (ditto Perl), you still don’t expect to see it there. You expect ASP, which is supported by IIS, free from MS with all main products. PHP and Perl are NOT part of the normal Windows install.
Interesting Part: Yes, installs of Linux are happening right and left. Same for Windows (pick a flavor). PHP is part of Linux sorta; definitely NOT part of Windows…yet PHP on Windows is climbing.
You have to make an effort to put PHP on Windows; on Linux it’s usually there.
We are lazy folks…if we go out and seek the install it means we really want it (as opposed to, “oh, yeah, we have {blah} let’s use it..”).
Yet PHP is climbing on Windows. Huh.
Sure, it’s free – that helps a lot (can you say “IE”?). But PHP usurps a lot of what both CF and ASP does, and integrates nicely with IIS (I just installed; no brainer).
Better to run PHP and mySQL on Linux/Apache than on Windows/IIS? Sure (to me).
Same price on both? Yes – free (get beyond the OS cost; we’re talking installed base).
Is there something that CF offers that PHP cannot match? Hmmm.. simplicity.
Which is more powerful? Probably PHP, with it’s roots in Java and Perl.
I dunno, you can keep going on like this – and be right or wrong – for hours. The bottom line is that such questions are valid (not “Can I use my Window 3.1 box to run my E-commerce site???”); the knowledge that so may exist is … interesting.
I like CF. I’ve been using it heavily for years. It’s not perfect; is C? NO!
Right tool for the right job.