All Fake

MS knows very well that PHP these days has become the hot server side scripting and is worried that most of these are hosted on linux/UNIX platforms. All this talk is just to promote Windows Servers for PHP and increase their platform. This is just a marketing strategy.

I am surprised that PHP Classes has published this article with out evaluating the truth in it. If MS really wants to support PHP why not contribute to the PHP source and develop some state of art code for PHP, that they claim their windows have?

Hope PHP Classes will at least take care in future, not to publish such marketing stuff in the larger interest of opensource developers.

Well, Microsoft is the biggest company for operating systems and no one can say otherwise.

If they are doing the job of recovering market share, it is up to the developer decision to accept or go somewhere else.

I don't feel really this being a bad decision after all, I feel as a win-win situation for the whole PHP world as most of PHP developers needed someone big to help bring more professionalism to the community and do not think it as being a really script kiddie world.

I vouch their decision and will most likely check their tools and evaluate myself if it is feasible or not.

Cheers,

Ernani

Of course Microsoft has interest in selling their software as much as possible. Microsoft is not a charity. That is their business.

There are no lies in the Microsoft initiative. They are actually doing it in part because some of us suggested it, and also in part because they want to attract as many PHP developers to promote their platform as much as possible. The more developers support it, the more they grow.

But PHP developers will not support their platform if they have nothing to gain. That is why Microsoft realized that the right thing to do is to create more business opportunities for PHP developers to get in the enterprise market and sell their PHP services or PHP products.

As for Microsoft contributing to the PHP source, I suppose you are not aware they are doing it already since several years ago. It is in the best of their interest that PHP running on Windows is not inferior to PHP running on other platforms.

The PHPClasses site will always publish articles with information that is of the interest of the PHP developers.

I completely agree with you. There is actual benefit .

I agree with Jordan. It is only aimed for marketing and MS are afraid since the open-source community is enormous and they want to get benefit from it as much as they can. Microsoft will never change its policies which is about getting the most profit with giving the user/enterprise a fake since of security and reliability.

"Microsoft will never change its policies which is about getting the most profit with giving the user/enterprise a fake since of security and reliability."

If the products they provide are so insecure and unreliable why do large enterprises use them?

Of course it's a marketing strategy, M$ wants to sell and there's nothing wrong with it. But let's accept this fact: Microsoft products are the mandatory choice for many large companies use. So this article was very helpful to show us that we can work anywhere, using M$ products or not. It's not a way to promote Microsoft, but to show us that we have more options for development. Too bad many people with exceeding MS hatred coudn't understand this article...

Thanks for understanding and helping to clarify the points.

Microsoft is not innocent. If some people still hate Microsoft is because of what they did in the past. But Microsoft is changing and now they are open to benefit the PHP professionals has they always did with professionals that use their languages.

Emotional reactions will not lead anybody anywhere. If you still do not appreciate the Microsoft initiatives to benefit the PHP world, just ignore them.

Regardless of that, 84% of the PHP developers use Windows on the desktop. So it is natural that many of them will take this chance that Microsoft is giving to open the doors to the market of their corporate clients. Many of them will make a lot more money then they are making now.

If Microsoft haters do not want to take this chance, that is OK, nobody will be upset. It is mainly their loss of opportunity.

Ok, I'm open minded. I really use everyday Windows on my desktop and I feel ok with that, however that doesn't implies that I agree with M$ ideas of building development tools.

I mean, you can code/run PHP in practically everything that can type/read plain text and you can be sure that your code (if you did it right) will be compatible for years, however at the company where I work, guys using M$ products (webservers, database servers, IDEs, etc) have problems EVERYDAY! ("incompatibility or broken stuff due the new patch that patched a previous patch of some ridiculous bug").

This is what make me "hate" (not in the more strict sense) Microsoft's products

I'll not force anybody to do what I think it's the best way or thing to do, but I have my own (well formed) idea and doesn't appear in it (at least by now) the big brand.


Saludos desde Argentina
Fernando Martin

This Microsoft initiative is not about making PHP developers like their tools. Actually, this initiative is not even just for PHP developers. It is also for developers and small businesses that use .NET .

The reason why they are giving away licenses of Microsoft software for a symbolic price, is because many poor developers and small businesses would pirate them otherwise because they cannot afford paying what they cost. That is why this initiative is restricted to small businesses with up to 10 employees.

If you do not want those tools, it is OK. You are not required to use them.

Furthermore, Microsoft will promote you and your PHP products if you want to work for their customers. Their customers use Windows and other Microsoft software. So, complaining about Microsoft software is pointless. If you want to take the chance, you need to adapt and learn about that software, or else other PHP developers will take your chance. That is why Microsoft will also provide free training.

If you completely refuse to work with Microsoft software under any circumstances, forget this, this initiative is not for you.