#5 - "However given that the current status of Mono isn't close to being on par with the .NET framework it's arguable just how useful Mono is currently for anything other than "tinkering""
Agreed, Mono still has a little ways to go but it has definitely reached the point of being useful for production development. Would I use it for large scale enterprise applications? No. But it should appeal quite a bit to the very people who you claim should be looking at LAMP... the people developing somewhat smaller applications that don't need the big guns.
"In that case, tell me what the point of paying for Windows is and then running Apache, MySQL and developing using SharpDevelop (so you can claim that it's all free) when you can do the same under Linux and save yourself the cost of Windows Server? "
Well, I wouldn't run Apache... nor did I suggest anybody should. IIS is free and comes with Windows. MySQL is horrible, but it's free where as MS SQL Server is very expensive. (Although it's far cheaper than DB2 or Oracle.) So the question remains why would somebody buy Windows just to run .NET + MySQL (or some other free DB)... well, for one, Windows 2003 Server is more secure than Linux. It's also much easier to maintain. And when running ASP.NET on IIS, it's faster than anything LAMP could hope to do for all but the most trivial of applications.
"Surely these ignorant people are much more likely to know about Microsoft then LAMP"
Oh come one... its rare these days to find college grads with ASP.NET/.NET experience. Most colleges teach Java to CS majors, at best. And LAMP or PHP is far more common place on college campuses than anything from Microsoft, mostly thanks to the anti-MS bias. Kids aren't even introduced to Microsoft products because their teachers have chosen to ignore what MS has produced for the past 5 years.
This leaves a huge number of ignorant, young programmers whom have been "raised" in an anti-MS world and haven't even taken the time to look at Microsoft's offerings.
"This doesn't make them ignorant - those that immediately dismiss LAMP (look in mirror)"
Heh. I've coded plenty of LAMP applications (unwillingly), as well as Coldfusion, JSP, PHP, and even some good old fashion C++ CGI apps. Tack on ATL, MFC, VB, Java and even some icky Cobol and I would say I'm pretty far from ignorant on these topics.
But please, let me know what language features or syntactical curiosities in MP or PHP are preferable to some nice C#+ASP.NET. I'd be really happy hear about them.
"As i said, LAMP just appeals to a different group of people and it fits their needs perfectly, even if you personally hate perl/python/php/etc."
Good for them, but I think that in most cases the $380 spent on Windows 2003 Server to enable the use of ASP.NET + C# + IIS 6, along with a free DB of your choice (I recommend Postgres), and SharpDevelop or MonoDevelop will result in a far more productive development environment as well as a far more performant and maintainable web application.
If $380 is really the barrier to entry for your enterprise, then perhaps a hosted solution would make more sense? Is $7.95 / month too much?
LAMP might have $0 startup costs (aside from hardware and time), but it will cost far more over time thanks to administration difficulty and the lack maintainability for everything but the smallest of applications.
This post was edited by RMD on Monday, June 20, 2005 at 19:55.
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