> Do you have NET, SQL Server Oracle installed on your > developer machine/
Yes, you can run all of those on a laptop. On my laptop, running Win2K Server SP3, I have SQL Server 2000 and the .NET Framework, among other things. I don't have Oracle installed right now, but several people here run Oracle 8.1.7 on their laptops, just for fun. > Are there free/reasonable developer versions of these > available. Yes. You can download Oracle from the Oracle Technet site for free, for development use (http://technet.oracle.com/). It requires some patience, since it's a very slow download, and Oracle 9i for Windows is four CDs. You can likewise download the .NET Framework and install it on any Windows 2000 machine for free - and that's all you really need for ASP.NET development. (Visual Studio.NET is nice, but there's a free ASP.NET development tool called WebMatrix available here: http://www.asp.net/.) There's a developer version of SQL Server 2000, but it's still about $400 or so, which isn't really that bad, but even there, you have alternatives. For CF development, you can use MSDE, which is essentially SQL Server without the Enterprise Manager console application: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/development/2000/MSDE2000.asp > The reason I ask is I want a completely self-contained > environment on a laptop -- that I can use for development > and demonstration to clients. In that case, I'd recommend Windows 2000 over Linux. There are several reasons I'd make that recommendation. One is simply that you're less likely to run into installation issues with your laptop - while Linux can be made to run on most laptops, the manufacturers don't necessarily make it easy. To take that one step farther, any gadgets that you want to hook up to your laptop will generally be supported under Windows, but maybe not under Linux. Another is familiarity - you and your clients are probably more familiar with the Windows interface; since you're getting this to demo to clients, they'll be looking right at it, and you won't have to answer stupid questions like "where's the Start menu on this thing". This extends to sharing files (Word docs, Powerpoint presentations, etc) with those clients. Another is simply that there are more commercial applications generally available on Windows - I can't think of one database diagrammer available for Linux, for example. I won't argue that Windows is a better server platform than Linux, but I think it's a more generally useful platform for most laptop users. But before you ditch OS X, you might just try running everything you need within Virtual PC, on either a Windows or Linux virtual OS. I do this for some things, and the performance isn't that bad for development purposes. On occasion, I run two virtual OS sessions (both Windows 2000, usually) without noticeable degradation in responses from services within those sessions. If I recall correctly, you already have a copy of Virtual PC, so you might have nothing to lose by trying this approach. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ voice: (202) 797-5496 fax: (202) 797-5444 ______________________________________________________________________ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
