ASP vs PHP

I stumbled into the long running debate of which server side programming language is better, PHP or ASP.  Here is how we looked at it when discussing which technology to use for a recent project.

PHP:

Pros:

1.  Speed:  PHP's ability to process complex pieces of programming is very strong when run in a Linux environment.

2.  Object Oriented:  PHP is now considered to be a fully object oriented programming language.

3.  Community:  PHP is supported by a quite large and powerful community.

4.  Cost:  PHP is free, linux is free, total costs are hardware and setup.

Cons:

1.  The developers involved in this project are not as strongly skilled in PHP as ASP.

2.  Requires more tinkering to properly connect to SQL Server.

3.  To take full advantage of PHP's speed, must use Linux based OS.

ASP:

Pros:

1.  Windows platform:  Less intensive setup.  Many would argue this, but realistically 90% of all computers use windows, it is more familiar to more people than Linux.  Which means that you can readily find more people capable of setting up a windows based web server than windows.

2.  Designed to seamlessly work with SQL Server.

Cons:

1.  Cost:  Windows.

2.  Speed:  Performs quickly, but never as fast as a properly configured Linux web server.

3.  Abandoned Language:  No telling what version of IIS will no longer support asp pages.

Conclusion

Based on what I have written here, most readers would scream PHP.  We chose ASP.  We decided that although PHP is the better language in the long hull, it would severely delay our entrance to market, which is a critical thing.  If we chose PHP, we would be breaking new ground in setting up a highly secure web server which would have slowed us down.  Not to mention the developers involved could probably be rated a 6 out of 10 on PHP and a 9 out of 10 on ASP, which means a learning curve.  We are definitely using SQL Server as the DB and we had trouble getting connected to a remote SQL Server.

So ASP was our choice, and I completely know that this is a highly debated issue and I welcome all comments.  As their may be information that might make my pro con list more robust.

Chris

Facebook Code Leak

Facebook, while performing maintenance on a web server over the weekend, apparently displayed code that generates its user interface. WOOPS.

Facebook claims that the code that was leaked did not threaten their users data. But security analysts argue that it very well may have.

The thought is this, a well versed hacker could look at the code and learn some of the inner workings of Facebook. This tidbit of knowledge, mixed with some sql injection and fake FaceBook pages on another web server is a cookbook for disaster.

A statement was made from Brandee Barker of FaceBook:

A small fraction of the code that displays Facebook web pages was exposed to a small number of users due to a single misconfigured web server that was fixed immediately. It was not a security breach and did not compromise user data in any way. Because the code that was released only powers the Facebook user interface, it offers no useful insight into the inner workings of Facebook. The reprinting of this code violates several laws and we ask that people not distribute it further

As posted on TechCrunch:

It seems that the cause was apache and mod_php sending back un-interpreted source code as opposed to output, due to either a server misconfiguration or high load (this is a known issue). It is also apparent that other pages have been revealed, and that this problem has occured before, but only now has somebody actually posted the code online.

So, I invite hackers to view the code at Facebook Secrets. This invitation is for educational purposes only, not to mention if you find security holes, maybe you could charge FaceBook to fix them.

Chris