How to drop WIMP for LAMP

Question

Does anyone have an example of something that can not be done on a Windows2000 server using PHP5?

UPDATE: Just to clarify, my problem isn't with IIS, or that I'm an "only open source" kinda guy. It's that the hosting is a terrible package across the board. The storage and bandwidth are ridiculous, there's no control panel so in order to do anything, even something as simple as setting up a cron job, requires contacting tech support, who grumbles about having to implement it and also seems to operate on the same timeline as the people on the island in lost.

Why not just tell the client I hear you ask! Tried it and failed. The hosting company isn't a hosting company, it's a friend of the client and nothing I say makes a blind bit of difference. I know my client is paying through the teeth for a hunk of crap but they just wont listen. On top of that, I've had to make some minor, but fundamental changes to the code base to adapt to the servers funky set up which means I now have to maintain two code bases. My development version, and the live version. it's doable, but it's wasted effort and on a tight deadline, I have better things to do with my time.

The only way I'm going to get my client to "do the right thing" is to come up with something that wont work because of the server. If not, I'll finish the job, upload it, wash my hands of it then never touch it again because it's more hassle than it's worth. I don't want to do that because I like to take pride in my work, but I will not waste my time compensating for a lazy ass server admin who really couldn't care less wether things work or not and I also wont take the blame for them either. This is my last ditch attempt to get help out a client who doesn't want to be helped. Maybe my title was misleading but I didn't want to bore everyone with the details, I just needed an answer and thought WIMP for LAMP would be the quickest way to ask. Moving to another WIMP environment wouldn't bother me, but as you can see, that's not going to happen.

Answer 1

It sounds like your team are using Windows, and you are an open source fan who wants to switch the Linux/Apache but don't have a good technical reason. So you are fishing here.

My comment would be that if you don't have a good reason yourself, why not stick with Windows. If you do have a good reason yourself, argue that good reason that applies to your project. Each technology has it's own advantages and disadvantages, and both are used successfully in production.

Of course, if I've misread the situation I apologise - can you edit your question to explain the situation better.

Answer 2

It might be hard to find a good systems administrator that knows IIS and PHP inside out.

Answer 3

On IIS 6, which ships with Windows 2000 Server, PHP will run as a CGI ... Therefore it can accomplish anything that it can do on a *nix server under apache. You must also have the supporting extensions and services installed like MySQL...

Answer 4

Its not a good practice to blame the technology for a mistake which is made by your client.

1. Explain your problems to the client (Again and Again)
2. Charge him more and tell him that's because of the problems you faced
3. Deliver the project late (Inform him earlier) tell him that this is because of the poor support from the hosting.
4. Find a better and cheap hosting and show the comparison to your client.
5. If nothing works!! QUIT! :)

Answer 5

I assume you aren't currently taking advantage of Apache's mod_rewrite utility. That's something that you can't quite do on Windows (you can, but it's a bigger job even with the latest routing / REST)

This would be a very strong case if they want restful URLs, which are often cited as good for search engines!

Other than that, charge more. If you're on a fixed rate, explain your reasons for not being able to meet the budget and quote for the additional work. These problems are usually generated by an unfair price (i.e. unfair on you in this instance).