Microsoft Opens PHP Door

littleFella · 11-01-2006, 10:04 PM

not sure if this is good or bad news.

ewomack · 11-03-2006, 10:51 AM

Hmmm... not sure what to think about that one, either. If they do a good job and Win PHP ends up running smoothly I guess it could count as a good thing.

But so many questions remain...

vangogh · 11-03-2006, 12:35 PM

I saw an article about this yesterday. It makes sense for Microsoft. Unless there servers work well with PHP most PHP developerd will be using Apache servers or something that's not IIS. I don't know that it will mean anything to me in the sense that I don't use IIS servers and don't have any intention of using them anytime soon.

I think as long as Zend still does the things they've always done with PHP then this is just a benefit to those who use PHP and want to run Microsoft servers.

What it mostly says is that the Open Source community is a bigger threat to Microsoft dominance than anyone at Microsoft believed.

In the end though I think Microsoft working more closely wth the Open Soucre community and perhaps opening up some of their proprietary code is a good thing for both Microsoft and the community.

StupidScript · 11-03-2006, 01:04 PM

The thing that makes my eyes cross about this is that Zend has agreed to modify PHP so it works better on IIS ... not the other way around. We'll end up with 2 versions of PHP, one IIS and one not, plus whatever "extensions" MS ends up messing with (just like every other common language they get involved with.) More work for us developers, and less consistency across apps.

IMHO, Microsoft should have, instead, offered to improve their IIS API so it works better with PHP.

It's like Ford making agreements with Chevron and BP to modify their gasoline so it works better in Ford cars and trucks. Good for Ford, bad for everyone else.

vangogh · 11-03-2006, 01:10 PM

That would be the bothersome part. I hadn't realized that's how it would work. I agree that it should be Microsoft changing things on their end to work better with PHP and not the other way around. I'd hate to see two versions of PHP or modifications to the language that don't benefit everyone who uses the language.

Do you know if there's a lot of money exchanging hands in this deal?

I guess if it really screws up PHP we can all move on to ruby or python. Many already are as it is.

StupidScript · 11-03-2006, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Do you know if there's a lot of money exchanging hands in this deal?

Not to be overly pessimistic, but why else would Zend consider dedicating resources to this task?

vangogh · 11-03-2006, 01:29 PM

I agree. Kind of what I was thinking, but I hadn't seen anything. I hope they're not just selling out here. PHP is a pretty widely used language and I would say the majority of PHP programmers aren't in the Microsoft camp.

Too much alignement with Micsrosoft could cause many of us to move to another language.

From what I'm understanding though I think Microsoft is genuinely trying to be more supportive of open source and I don't think this will turn out to be a big issue. My guess is it really comes down to Microsoft wanting more PHP developers to embrace IIS servers.

Hopefully that's all it is.

StupidScript · 11-03-2006, 01:33 PM

Quote:

My guess is it really comes down to Microsoft wanting more PHP developers to embrace IIS servers.

I'd have to agree with that. Not sure if it's an attempt to be more supportive of open source, though, so much as protecting their investment.

Quote:

"I can tell you for sure why Microsoft is investing heavily in this relationship is that there were serious performance issues for PHP on Microsoft it wasn't just a perception issue," Gutmans said.

"The changes that we've made now, including the FastCGI component, we get around two times performance improvement and in some applications a much as three times. We are removing a very serious technology barrier with this engagement."

Boy, that article is a lot better than the CNet article on the same topic. CNet had a lot more pro-MS spin.

vangogh · 11-03-2006, 01:42 PM

Those quotes look like there from the article I read. I think I found it through the tech news at either CNN or Yahoo. I can't remember which.

I completely agree this isn't about the new kinder Microsoft. I think the cooperation with open source is still about protecting their investment. Years ago they just assumed they could crush the open source movement, but now that they've seen it's not going to happen they seem to have changed strategies to embrace it where it makes sense for them to embrace it.

If you can't beat them join them, I guess.