Hey guys,
This is a question for who works with both PHP and ASP.NET/C#/VB.
I plan on learning both languages over time, but I am curious in the order you learned both technologies? And Why?
Maybe you just chose by time/ease to become good in the language or you just prefer one language over the other.
I want to learn both technologies so, if for some reason my projects don't workout, I have a backup plan as a web developer for clients. I would really like to service both sides of the isle, Windows and LAMP
Thanks for suggestions.
I started out with PHP. Did a few projects but now moving to ASP.NET. Alot of jobs now which are around where I am based want asp.net developers. So I am forced to learn this framework. It is a learning curve but in the long run it but it pays off. I am enjoying learning asp.net and it seems more robust compared to PHP.
Alot of companies want asp.net because of its banding and not aware of open souce unless your lucky. While you can get the same results from both asp.net makes it less complicated.
I would recommend learning asp.net because once you learnt how to do it applying it to php is easier than starting with php and going from asp.net.
When he said php.net, what he meant is the PHP plugin for visual studio. You code in PHP and it compiles into asp.net.
Price is not such a big thing anymore, as the price comparison between php and .net hosting is minimal now days
I started with PHP, but did not go into much detail. Then went over to .NET and then php as well. Both in great detail.
I MUCH prefer asp.net over PHP. It makes more sense and is a much better language.
@mahesh2010. What technologies is it 20x faster than? As it is definitly not faster than .net. PHP, actually runs faster on windows than it does on linux, but .net still has better performance. Excepct for disk IO.
I am not a fan of joomla at all. Wordpress is the greatest PHP open source system around.
Yeah, that would make sense if you had a provider, but I plan to host them on my Windows Server configuration setup at home. So, I have the server down, but am still deciding on .NET vs PHP, for the developer platform.
Anyways, thanks for everyones help, it’s benifited alot. I guess I still have to rack my brain over this one.
Thanks for your input, fegall. I have seen you have been on this board for awhile, and know your stuff, but what are your main reasons for going the Open Source route (PHP MySQL)? Price is defiently one of them and so would learning curve, but you have alot more experience in technology then I do, so your comment would be much appreated.
I’ve learned php first, 'cause I didn’t know better, then asp .net. They are quite different and each develops a certain mindset and the human mind has the bad habit of wanting the “best” and single way to do things.
Right now, I code only in asp .net mvc , I haven’t kept up with php so my recent experience is about asp.net and this is the technology I’m comfortable with. Btw asp.net is a framework, c# or vb, php are languages. You can learn both php and .net at the same time but I don’t think that is teh best way, because of the mindset differences.
Pick one and learn it until you have a small project done. Then, if you want try the other one. Now, the main problem is that no matter what you’ll chose, you’ll learn from bad tutorials, but this is life… Practise makes perfect so it is important to practise BUT it is also important to start developing good habits after you’ve learned the basics. Most developers continue the same way forever and perhaps that’s the reason there are so many coded horrors (no pun intended)
The majority of people really don’t care about the technology itself, but they’ll probably choose something LAMP because of lower costs and plenty of offers. Many software products are php based (wordpress, vbulletin, smf etc) so they usually want or need php.
asp.net is mainly used for company projects or your own. I’m doing my own projects and I prefer asp.net, however I don’t know many clients asking specifically for something .net.
The point of learning c# is to expand your expertise, I prefer .net/c# because I work much faster in it and it’s a bit cleaner than in php. In php you tend to develop bad habits especially when doing the same type of (small) project. However, you can write quality code in php, but it takes a LOT of discipline and I see that the good old “reinventing the wheel” is still trendy now like it was a few years ago. I honestly say that
I’m a better developer since I’ve switched to .net but probably that’s because of me rather than c# 
If you create (small) websites for many clients, probably php is enough (and mastering a framework like Symfony won’t hurt at all). But I think that if you have some time, you should play a bit with asp.net mvc to see how you like it. VS Express is free so no costs here.
P.S: It’s good to learn .Net because you can learn interesting stuff (generics,Linq etc) and you never know when you’ll want to develop a complex project for a company or you have the opportunity of a well paid job as a .net developer.
You could always choose php.net
If you already have web hosting then take a look to see which it supports and learn that one first.
Thanks for the reply, praetor. The main reason I started this thread, is because I’m curious as to which platform clients prefer, Windows or Open Source? I’ve done hours of research online, and it seems clients prefer Open Source because of hosting costs. Is it BS, or some truth to it. I’ve also done research on hosting, and some companies (e.g. - www.discountasp.net) is just as cheap as PHP hosting. I wouldn’t see the point of learning C# if the majority of clients prefer LAMP, for the so called ‘cheaper route’.
If you don’t mind me asking, if you are a freelancer/business owner, what do the majority of your clients ask for, or even if they ask (don’t care)?
Thanks for your help.