new website - develop for unix or microsoft environment?

starting from scratch

[mimerim]

although i am definitely no unix guru, my experience has been with unix. our current site is freebsd and i have had absolutely no problems with it. we are doing a complete new website, outsourcing the development, and possibly going to a new host. which gives us the opportunity to do anything. should i even consider moving to a microsoft environment?

any comments appreciated. thanks!

[Duckula]

and i have had absolutely no problems with it

If you're going to answer your own questions this is going to be a very boring conversation :)

[dmorison]

Well seeing as you're starting from scratch; i'd let the company you are going to outsource the development to have a say in the matter!

Especially if you don't have the skills or experience (not meant in a derogatory way) to make the decision yourself.

There's nothing worse than being handed a project and have someone with insufficient knowledge (normally a manger type) tell you that you're building on "Platform X"...!

[shasan]

should i even consider moving to a microsoft environment?

There is nothing you can do in a Microsoft environment (in terms of functionality) that you cannot do in a *nix environment. Not to mention the HUGE open source community that develops for mainly *nix.

Go with what you know and like, why venture into the unknown when you can get the same functionality from something familiar?

[moltar]

Stick with FreeBSD for sure! :)

[bunltd]

another vote for FreeBSD. why fix what ain't broke?

LisaB

[nonprof webguy]

The site I run as my day job is all Microsoft-based, launched just over 2 years ago. Its on Windows 2002 webserver, and uses MS SQL Server for its database. This decision was made before I arrived and was made by the web design shop -- that's what they knew how to do. It hasn't been a problem at all.

That said, if I were starting now on a new site, there is absolutely no question in my mind that I'd build it on the "LAMP" architecture: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl.

Why? Three reasons:

1. There's a significantly larger developer community for Apache, which makes it easier to find help.

2. There's more good web site software out there for Apache platforms.

3. I find Apache and PHP better suited to web site programming than Windows and vbScript. I find I can develop components in PHP in about two-thirds the time (on average) it takes me in Windows/vbScript -- even though I'm more fluent in Windows/vbScript.

I've been rebuilding my personal sites on a LAMP platform. From a professional development point-of-view, I feel the best opportunities out there today are for people who can work with Apache/PHP.

That's my $0.02

[mimerim]

Thanks for the comments everyone! I think I will go with my gut and stay with FreeBSD. :)