Unix or windows?

[xoggoth]

Just made a simple customer feedback thing in PHP and MYSql for small business website and I was thinking of doing same for another site but it has basic hosting with neither of these facilities so I need to upgrade.

I only do a very tiny bit of server side stuff using PHP, email, shopping cart, customer feedback and callback from worldpay, not any serious professional stuff like some of you lot and was wondering whether to get UNIX or Windows. As they both run PHP and MySql does it make any real difference? I was thinking Windows as ASP is a version of VB.net, so I might understand that a bit more than PHP.

Any opinions? Cheers.

[NickFitz]

I've found that Unix hosting is generally a fair bit cheaper than Windows hosting (no Microsoft tax to pay).

For PHP and MySQL, there are a lot of free scripts and so forth available. Unfortunately, a lot of them are shoddy insecure garbage, and you probably don't want the hassle of learning how to distinguish the good from the bad. All of this applies to ASP.NET too, but you might have a better chance of distinguishing the good from the bad.

As you're already familiar with .NET it might make more sense to move to developing in ASP.NET, unless the hosting costs are a factor, in which case you need to make a tradeoff between hosting costs and the value of your time.

If you decide to stick with the PHP/MySQL combo on the basis of the work you've already put in on that platform, then you might as well use Unix (almost certainly Linux) hosting. Most hosting providers only offer web-based control panels (such as PHPMyAdmin for MySQL) and FTP for uploading files, so the server OS becomes irrelevant from that perspective: you're unlikely to find yourself confronted with a bash shell.

[xoggoth]

Cheers nick. I thought windows was pricier too but 123reg offer either at same price. Probably stick with what I know which ain't a lot that end.