Hi,
I have designed scores of websites in the last ten years of my association with the web designing and web development. But, still it’s quite difficult for me to say if a particular platform is the answer to the choice of a website development. When I say platform, it essentially means the server, database, and language that one needs to deploy for developing a website. At the cost of making a clichéd statement, I would say it largely depends on the nature of business, budget allocated for the website development & designing, your targeted and prospective customers and so forth.
My experience as a website developer and designer has taught me an eternal truth – each new website to be built is unique in it requirements and has the potential to throw challenges you would never have faced before. But, that’s the most exciting part of being a web programmer, developer or designer. Like any other areas of learning, web development and designing also teaches you constantly as you go on creating new websites.
Now, I must tell you whatever I really feel when it comes to making the choice of platform designing and developing a website. My experience tells me that most webmasters I have designed and developed websites for are not really aware of different web development & designing platform options and, more importantly, the individual benefits thereof. But, why would they know? That’s the job of web developers, designers and especially, the IT consultants.
But, you should never undermine the importance of choosing the right web platform for your site as you will only be ruing over your decision in the long run if you ever make a wrong choice. Well, let me tell you why.
First of all when you talk about choices of web application platforms, I just can’t help coming up with two names such as .NET and Linux. These two applications are being predominately used all over the world at the present moment for building new websites. Both have their respective edges over the other and limitations too. Having said that, the only way to make a perfect choice of web development platform is to analyze and understand the specific present and future needs of your business operations.
If you are budget-oriented, Linux could be great for you. Some of the most popular scripting codes that can be categorized under Linux are PHP, CGI, Perl, Python etc. Linux is basically, an open source code which is also less prone to virus threat. On the other hand, .NET is one of the Window platform scripting languages among ASP, ASP.NET, C#, C old Fusion and so forth. Talking about the database servers Linux supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sybase and the like. Windows platform also offer database server options such as MS SQL Server, MS Access, Oracle which are pretty popular.
Let me illustrate why making an absolute choice between these two is so difficult. For instance, if you wish to develop a discussion board, PHP could be the better pick. Whereas ASP would be a more holistic option for e-commerce application development. However, PHP is also capable of being used in developing e-commerce applications. So basically, the decision to choose either one hinges mostly on your specific business requirements and, of course, budget.
As I’ll discuss on cross-platform compatibility in my upcoming post, you will get to understand more on this since these web tools and applications are all so interrelated, aren’t they?
