Re: PHP Cost/Benfit Analysis?

Everett Littles wrote:

> Does anyone have any data concerning the benefits of using PHP/MySQL vs
Coldfusion and say MS SQL Server?  Our division of the University would
like to go with one or the other and make it the standard development
environment.  Any data comparing the two, especially as it relates to
costs (software costs, maintenance, etc) would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks.

I don't have anything to give you but a quick visit to Microsoft's site
will give you a price listing for Windows 2003, which you will need, and
MS SQL.  If you're looking to get a dedicated server and put MS SQL Server
on it, unless you host yourself, it's also going to be much more
expensive.

Granted, I'm sure there is some discount for your University, so the cost
is not that bad...and considering that you're at a Univ. if you can make
the source code for your applications available, you won't need to pay
anything for MySQL.  So the cost for a PHP/MySQL setup would be $0

I'm guessing that you'll be putting this on a Windows server regardless of
language/database right?  If you can get SQL Server for relatively cheap,
software costs is not an issue...

Think of support?  What if something goes wrong or you don't have a SQL
Server DBA available?  How much does MS charge for support vs MySQL AB. 
Can you install the software on more than one machine?  What if people
want to install a local copy for development when they're at home or on
vacation?  Does SQL Server allow you install local development instances
just in case you decide to do that one day?  you never know...

As far as stability on Windows... not an issue.  Actually MySQL takes less
resources to run than SQl Server so hardware doesn't need to be top notch.
 It would help...