Moving Away from ASP. Should I go .net or php??

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Posted by Silentj9, 05-19-2010, 10:11 AM
Does anyone have any insight on this. I have to move away from classic ASP. It has done well for me for about 10 years, but I'm moving on as Microsoft will no longer support it. Anyone have any insight on moving to either PHP or ASP.net. C# or VB.net? I heard it was an easier transition into PHP. I like that PHP has a lot more options for open source code out there. But I like that I know the Windows server environments very very well. Anyone gone through this transition with any comments?
Posted by danima, 05-19-2010, 10:58 AM
Definitely PHP in my opinion. I personally went from ASP to PHP and I never looked back. You're right that it is an easier transition, but it really comes down to preference. If you're more comfortable in a windows environment and really don't want to deal with Linux then I suggest you go with ASP.net (C#). I personally would never run PHP on a windows server.
Posted by Silentj9, 05-19-2010, 11:06 AM
Yeah I wouldn't go for the Windows/PHP option. I would make a full move to Linux & PHP. There have been many times in which this would have been a big benefit in my 10 years of owning an ad agency. But then again how many times did ASP/Windows help me out wihtout me thinking of if it's the right solution. Also I have tons of existing ASP code which will go to waste either way. Although I guess I could do some mixed mode stuff w .net
Posted by 4umfreak, 05-19-2010, 02:19 PM
Ugh, Go PHP and never look back. I write both professionally and have far fewer headaches with PHP. Besides, hosting is cheaper and you don't need Visual Studio et al. Good luck.
Posted by nayes84, 05-19-2010, 02:37 PM
I did that move about 7 years ago. ASP was really annoying and had many incompatibility issues with different versions of ASP. Microsoft didn't seem to care about having backward compatibility with older versions or I bit they did it in purpose to force people to move to the new version so Microsoft sales will increase. Go ahead php/linux is open source and very widely used compared to ASP/ASP.NET I guess.
Posted by inspiron, 05-19-2010, 03:39 PM
For running .net one needs IIS installed on windows platform which will cost you. Whereas PHP run on Linux and its free. Also PHP generally uses MySQL database which is free.
Posted by n3r0x, 05-19-2010, 04:33 PM
You should go php and never go back.. personally i rather go and write CGI in C than use asp.. but that´s just me =)
Posted by LiquidWebBenny, 05-19-2010, 06:10 PM
I definitely like PHP, but I've never coded in ASP so I do have a bit of a biased opinion. It looks like there might be some programs that will convert asp to php for you. It might be easier to clean up random errors, than having to recode the entire thing. This one is the first one I came up with: http://asp2php.naken.cc/ From here: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=&oq=&gs_rfai= Good luck which ever direction you decide to go in!
Posted by Host90, 05-19-2010, 06:40 PM
Go Go Php , ASP is a Mess , php is amazing , readable code , easy to maintain , easy to debug , and lot faster
Posted by Nadeem0319, 05-19-2010, 07:25 PM
PHP. Will be easy to maintain throughout different levels of servers and Operating Systems. ASP, is harder in Linux and requires lots of different repo installs. ~NS
Posted by Silentj9, 05-19-2010, 08:27 PM
I'm not so concerned about the cost. I already have Windows servers with .net and SQL server. I don't know much on Linux security though and I'm concerned my Linux boxes might get hacked. I don't like shared Linux hosting because they always oversell those Linux boxes and performance suffers. Windows are generally a set it and forget it type of environment. I'm assuming that's what you pay for.
Posted by 4umfreak, 05-19-2010, 09:18 PM
If you can get on a well managed server with a good provider with a good control panel, you won't need to do anything with it. The old "get what you pay for" doesn't apply to Linux. It's hands-down better than Windows - especially in a server environment. Sure you may need a little knowledge but if you learned Windows, it's all the same principles.
Posted by HostTantra, 05-19-2010, 11:26 PM
If you are used to ASP then moving to ASP.NET would be easier than moving to any other environment. Although PHP has its own advantages of easier deployment and simple scripting for someone who has been working with Microsoft ASP for 10 years it would seem a bit alien environment.
Posted by nayes84, 05-20-2010, 04:53 AM
It is not the end of story about cost. If it's your own servers. It will not be long till Microsoft release a new Windows Server Version and start pushing people into upgrading by decreasing updates and support to the old ones. so you'll have to pay for the upgrade fee to ensure updated servers. On the other hand, if you are renting the server from some provider. compare costs between windows servers and linux servers. linux is much cheaper. When it come to stability, windows even after performance and stability increase on 2000. it is still incomparable to linux stability. I had a linux server running for 2 year continuously. didn't restart it at all. and still running normally not hanging or getting memory low or any problems that come up with windows when it runs for long time.
Posted by hdsrob, 05-20-2010, 07:51 AM
I think you should use the tool that best solves the problem at hand. The right tool for the job will vary in different situations. I have clients that want plug ins for PHP scripts, or want things written in PHP, so I use PHP. I have clients that have a large investment in .NET so I write in .NET. I have clients that just want a solution, and I write with the tool that makes the most sense for their situation. In most situations this is PHP (especially if I'm hosting the solution for them, since I only have Linux servers at this point). The nice thing about it is that if you know classic ASP (VB based) then ASP.NET (VB) isn't that large of a move. If you are comfortable with (or willing to learn) C style languages then you can figure out C# and PHP. On the .NET side there is very little difference between C# and VB other than the syntax, so use what you are most comfortable with. ASP.NET also opens the door to Silverlight (which is all client side so can run on Linux or Windows servers). Also, a properly set up Windows machine can run PHP and MySQL as well as a Linux box. This may allow you to use the Windows environment to migrate code over a longer period of time, in a server environment that you are comfortable with.
Posted by ibee, 05-20-2010, 07:53 AM
ASP.NET is better because existing site is using ASP, you can also use PHP and it is a open source.
Posted by hic_smith, 05-20-2010, 08:04 AM
A general comparison can be seen at http://www.webpronews.com/expertarti.../22/asp-vs-php I personally prefer PHP.
Posted by under_gravity, 05-20-2010, 09:52 AM
C#/ASP.NET definitely recommended.

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