Archive for the ‘Developer Tools’ Category
Deciding on a hosting platform for your website can be a complicated and confusing process, especially if you plan on integrating data connectivity and dynamic web pages within your site. With the competing technologies available choosing between CGI, PHP, Perl and ASP.NET hosting can leave you scratching your head. My goal here is to describe the pros and cons of utilizing ASP.NET hosting for your website.
What is ASP.NET?
The most common form of web hosting taken up by most newcomers to the web is know as shared hosting. This entails buying space on one of the web servers of the web hosting firm, where each web server may contain several other websites from other account holders.
The two most popular operating system software setups used on shared hosting web servers are the linux/apache and Windows 2003/IIS6 setups. There are several other software packages installed on each web server, but the operating system and the web server software are the most critical. The choice between these two setups usually always defines what software can be installed on the web servers hardware, and what you, the website developer, can utilize in developing your site.
Linux , an open source operating system, together with Apache an open source web server software package, are generally considered to be part of what is termed the LAMP systems. The other components are MySQL and Php. These software packages are generally available free of charge for personal or business use.The companies that supply these products offer extra value addons for which they charge. The majority of commercially available website software packages have been developed on and for LAMP systems. These systems are immensely stable and have been debugged extensively by the programming community that supports them. There is an enormous amount of recorded information available for you to search for, lots of people to ask questions if you need to. Forums are useful places to get both free and chargeable support. If you select a web server based on Linux/apache, you will have all these resources available to you and be able to develop your site along these lines for as long as you keep the site on a LAMP system. However, you will not be able to use most of the Microsoft based technologies.
Windows 2003 server together with IIS6 forms the Microsoft windows web hosting environment. This is now embedded in the Microsoft .net platform. Microsoft needs no introduction as the dominant desktop PC software supplier for going on 2 decades. Microsoft .net which now underpins Microsoft web technology ,is a proprietary Microsoft Technology. The technology is embedded in all Microsoft operating systems from windows 2000 upwards, plus Microsoft office, Microsoft developer tools and some other Products beyond the scope of this article. In fact, It will probably be embedded in any product produced with Microsoft technology.
The windows web server environment is extremely popular with programmers and web developers who developed their skills on Microsoft technologies such as Visual basic , possibly the most popular programming language in the world, Visual C , C++, C#. There are significantly fewer commercial web packages available for Microsoft .net web servers. This maybe due to the fact that LAMP servers dominate the internet, plus the cost of operating .net web software.
However, the .net platform is enormously capable and comes with many rapid development features built in . Many corporates develop their sites using these technologies and get remarkable results, very quickly. Microsoft provides what may be the world largest knowledge archive to support its product and access is easy , well though out and quick. Plus these are lots of online and off line experts willing and able to provide paid and free support to the novice or experienced web developer.
Both of these options are valid choices, and the choice made by the novice web developer must be determined by personal circumstance. I use both systems and can only say that when configured properly, both can be a joy to work with.
Due to the availability of free or commercial scripts, the none technical novice who simply wants to publish online will probably start of with the Linux/apache setup.
For the vb.net/vb/excel programmer who has ideas to develop, a .net server is the straight forward choice. Whichever you chose, have fun!
Open source development has attracted the attention of numerous developers and even very large technology firms. Individual developers often choose to invest time and resources in open source projects for various personal reasons such as personal fulfillment, the challenge of solving a problem or simply out of need. Companies, on the other hand, invest in them for very different reasons. Typically, only the projects that can help improve the bottom line get investment from companies.
Complementary Offerings
One reason to invest in a an open software is that for a proprietary company, such projects can provide complementary offerings. By investing in an open product that improves the functionality of a proprietary offering, companies can increase their sales. Open source software that extends or enhances proprietary systems is a valuable sales tool that many companies are discovering.
Potential for Profit
Besides complementing existing software, open-source projects are an excellent opportunity to standardize the core IT stack that proprietary software runs on. One example is the popular Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) stack used in web development. This stack provides a stable IT core which allows companies to focus on building and selling software that sits higher up the stack such as middleware applications or developer tools. Typically, these types of products have a much higher profit margin which makes investing in the open source stack very profitable.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Another reason to invest in open source is the phenomenal increase in the popularity of hosted applications. Cloud computing has driven greater adoption of hosted software that is sold as a service (SaaS). This is leading to the commoditization of some classes of software. Investing in open source is one way to build robust hosted applications. SugarCRM is a great example of an open product that can be purchased as a hosted application.
As software becomes more of a commodity in the cloud computing era, companies must find new ways to earn revenue. SaaS is certainly one way. Selling services related to software products is another. There are a number of companies that have built entire businesses on supporting popular open-source products. These companies often learn a great deal about what users need and want in providing services so it makes sense for them to contribute back to the projects based on this knowledge. You can also make a case that customers are more willing to purchase support and other services for a free product from a company that is involved in that product’s development. Investing in open-source can lead to a profitable services business built around that project.
Licensing Opportunities
Investing in open source also opens the door to mixed licensing opportunities. A company that invests in an open source project can provide an community license and a commercial license. There are several examples of companies that have successfully done this including Sugar CRM and Trolltech, the makers of the QT graphics library. Both of these products are available in community or non-commercial versions but commercial licensing is also available.
There are a lot of reasons to invest in open source software. Setting aside philosophy and the motivations of individual developers, most companies invest in it because they can make money doing so. Investing in open source often provides additional opportunities including services, hosted applications and mixed licensing. Open source also provides a stable core which allows companies to build commercial offerings higher up in the software stack. This usually results in higher profit margins.