.NET or PHP, Corporate or Open-Source ?

Question

I am very experienced in working with open-source technologies like PHP, MySQL, Apache and others. I feel like home working with them and the code comes to me with little effort.

I recently started playing with the ASP.NET technology (I know it doesn't compare to PHP, or does it?) and everything seems very easy, but still I don't feel like home.

I still can't decide what road to take and with what should I experiment next.

Some of my friends work in small companies with open-source technologies and say that they are in heaven and this is the way to go. On the other hand some of my relatives work in corporate environments and say that they are in heaven and don't want to hear about open-source (although they were very happy with open-source before the corporate period).

I am very confused, I would like you guys to tell me if you had similar experiences and what you did? It would mean a great deal to me.

Answer 1

It may sound trite but do what you enjoy.

There are plenty of PHP and ASP.NET jobs around and even if there was a massive difference, I'm not sure that should even be a factor unless you liked both equally.

It is true that ASP.NET is probably more popular in more "corporate" environments ("enterprise development" is the usual term) so factor in what type of companies and what kind of work you'd like to be doing.

Answer 2

The choice depends more on the type of project and the development approach.

PHP will be more attractive to small projects, without a rigorous approach. ASP.net will integrate more quickly into a traditional development team's practices. This doesn't mean that you can't use PHP for "big" apps, or that ASP.net isn't any good for quick and dirty side projects. These are just aptitudes, and either can be bent to any purpose.

In the end, what it boils down to is convention and taste. Pick the one you like, or the one the jobs are for, and use that. Or if you can, use both.

Answer 3

I don't think there is a right answer here. Also your question hits two points, PHP vs ASP.net and open source vs closed. As far as ASP or PHP do what feels right for you. When you say ASP.NET doe snot compare to PHP, I wonder where you are coming from. To me its like saying spanish doesn;t compare to german. It's really different ways fo saying(doing) something. In the end you will get the same thing. It's about how you get there. Get there the best way YOU know how.

As far as open vs closed source. Corporate tends to use solutions that have support built in. (and I believe sometimes there are kickbacks with some of these products, but thats another story)

Answer 4

If you are looking for what will be the most marketable skill set, there is a good job posting aggregator that does trending at Indeed.com. Basically it searches its job database for search terms you put in and outputs a nice graph trending the number of jobs that have descriptions containng your key word(s). Not a perfect measure of marketability, but it's pretty good. I ran one for you, check the link out:

Jobs for various web technologies

According to the chart, you may want to spend some time with Java.

Answer 5

A very little amount of people benefit directly from their environment being Open-Source. In most cases you download the latest version of the Framework, and it'll stay that way, until a new version is released.

So it really comes down to which language to choose.

The best answer would be both - each language does things different.

But I started out with PHP and switched to ASP.NET.

Answer 6

ASP.NET is much faster than PHP, in part because it is a compiled language whereas PHP is an interpreted one. This plays a big role in determining what to use but isn't the only factor.

Ideally you will want to make the decision for each project you are about to embark on. I tend to choose ASP.NET more often than not but I know many people who get very detailed when deciding on which language to use.

Answer 7

Companies that use ASP.NET are paying for that technology.
Not that companies that use PHP are cheap on everything. I could build a case on having extra IT budget because of PHP...

But it is something to keep in mind.

Answer 8

I work with .NET but often with Open Source, such as Umbraco. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Having worked with both PHP and .NET I much prefer the latter (mainly because C# is so much nicer than PHP and the .NET framework more consistent), but that's personal preference.

Answer 9

I'd want to mention something to be cautious about when it comes to working at what feels like home. If where I worked had very lax rules so that it was like home, this may cause me to be a bit more sloppy or less professional than I am now because I could wear whatever I wanted, work when I wanted, etc. I'm not saying this would happen to you, just that I'd put this warning out to people who think that there is no down side to working from home or what feels like home.

Broken Windows is a concept around this in a sense where if you live with a bunch of broken windows but don't work with them, would you end up acccepting them at your work to phrase my point as a question to ponder.