Mallen Baker wrote: > Hi - the company we're talking to about doing some work on a simple > site / database is trying hard to persuade us that Windows-based PHP > / mysql is not the route to go. The arguments are as follows: >
Windows-based PHP might not be the way to go. We've deployed PHP as CGI under IIS, and, while it did work, there were things Linux/Apache gave us that you can't get under Windows (IIS or Apache) (good URL parsing, for a start). It was workable enough, but was not very fast. > 1. XXX's experience that MySQL is less than 100% stable when running > on a windows platform (main problem being unexpected database > shutdowns while applications are being used). If we're going on experiences, then our experiences is that *anything* on Windows doesn't stay up 100% of the time (not saying other OSs are necessarily better, but you'll find pros and cons on both sides). Just because something isn't 100% doesn't mean you shouldn't go with it. We've run various SQL Servers on Windows and normally had to reboot every 1-2 months as a preemptive strike against a crash. We had unexpected database crashes with MS products on MS servers. By XXX's logic, we shouldn't use MS SQL Server either. But people do use it. 2. The fact that the > recommended mode for running PHP on a windows platform (the CGI > binary) uses technology that is now reasonably old and will > consequently result in a hit to the server performance and memory > management and the associated possible lack of scalability. As others have said, the Apache module under Windows seems to work better. 3. Loss > of verity - the powerful search engine bundled with Cold Fusion. > Searches may be significantly slower on the new site. Depending on what you use. MySQL has full-text searching which, while not perfect, does a pretty good job with most of the stuff we've thrown at it so far (speed and size). > > I have had some experience using php/mysql on linux/apache - but > don't have enough information to know whether this advice is sound or > not. Can anyone please advise - is there anything in these arguments? > > > If so, are there ways around the problems. We very much want to use > these technologies due to the open source aspects. > There's always an answer - depends on how much work you want to do. Yeah, CF/Verity might be nice to start with, but who's doing the coding? If XXX is doing it up front, will they be around to make changes quickly/as needed? Or will the maintenance drop to you? They may have a reseller program which means they'll make a couple hundred bucks off the sale of CF and want to push that. (just a guess - you haven't given any more info). For the money you'd spend on CF, you could do worse than to buy a machine to run LAMP on and go with that. If they only want to push CF at you, and you want PHP, give us a call. :) Michael Kimsal http://www.phphelpdesk.com 734-480-9961 Guaranteed PHP support when you need it -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
