Submitted by Unix DOS box phobe (not verified) on Tue, 10/27/2009 - 19:45.
I see complaints about documentation and forum replies dismissing help for people using Windows. The same happens to Linux and Unix beginners and is the biggest single roadblock to people using Linux for Web development. Installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP on your existing Windows netbook, notebook, or workstation is far easier for Web developers already on Windows.
The various packages of Apache, MySQL, and PHP sometimes work and sometimes do not but are hard to fix at the start of a class because there are so many variations of the packages each with different problems and each reacting differently to the various versions of Windows. To diagnose the Apache part of a package install, you end up installing Apache by itself. The same thing happens with MySQL then PHP. When the package works, the package interface is different to the cpanel you use on your Web server or VPS.
Ubuntu has the best support for beginners but a search of Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution frequently brings up documentation showing how to use an incompatible version from 2002 or earlier. Converting an old computer to Ubuntu usually works without resorting to the outdated documentation but converting a modern computer often runs into trouble, leaving the user wishing they had simply installed Apache, MySQL, and PHP direct into their Windows machine.
The Unix/Linux pages are full of unexplained commands that have to be entered in the Unix DOS box. Try telling a Windows user to revert to the 1970s and DOS commands. Windows looks really good compared to the documentation for Linux and Unix.
One argument for converting to Linux is that your Web site will be hosted on Linux. Who cares? The vast majority for beginners use a hosting package that includes cpanel. They do not see the dreaded Unix DOS box.
Based on students with notebooks, a straight installation of Apache works in Windows with the Windows firewall and virus checkers turned off. The Windows firewall and virus checkers spoil almost every installation of everything and students are used to switching them off. With those items off, MySQL and PHP slip in as smooth as cholesterol into an artery. Vista and Macs have strange security arrangements where things randomly refuse to work in class and they have to take the machines back to the shop or whoever installed the operating system.
My suggestion for the future, when Webmin and related packages can do everything that cpanel does, is to set up your local machine, using your existing operating system, and your hosted VPS with exactly the same lineup of Apache, MySQL/PostgreSQL, PHP, Webmin, the other mins, Drupal, dotProject, and WebERP/XRMS. We can then use one Web interface for everything and forget Windows, Linux, Unix, the perpetual Gnome/KDE fight, the annoying Mac differences, and the dreaded Vista.
Of course we have to make all those web applications change to use one themeing system so they all use the same theme because then all the buttons will be the same.
Quick! Look out your window. Is that a flock of winged piglets up in the sky?
I see complaints about documentation and forum replies dismissing help for people using Windows. The same happens to Linux and Unix beginners and is the biggest single roadblock to people using Linux for Web development. Installing Apache, MySQL, and PHP on your existing Windows netbook, notebook, or workstation is far easier for Web developers already on Windows.
The various packages of Apache, MySQL, and PHP sometimes work and sometimes do not but are hard to fix at the start of a class because there are so many variations of the packages each with different problems and each reacting differently to the various versions of Windows. To diagnose the Apache part of a package install, you end up installing Apache by itself. The same thing happens with MySQL then PHP. When the package works, the package interface is different to the cpanel you use on your Web server or VPS.
Ubuntu has the best support for beginners but a search of Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution frequently brings up documentation showing how to use an incompatible version from 2002 or earlier. Converting an old computer to Ubuntu usually works without resorting to the outdated documentation but converting a modern computer often runs into trouble, leaving the user wishing they had simply installed Apache, MySQL, and PHP direct into their Windows machine.
The Unix/Linux pages are full of unexplained commands that have to be entered in the Unix DOS box. Try telling a Windows user to revert to the 1970s and DOS commands. Windows looks really good compared to the documentation for Linux and Unix.
One argument for converting to Linux is that your Web site will be hosted on Linux. Who cares? The vast majority for beginners use a hosting package that includes cpanel. They do not see the dreaded Unix DOS box.
Based on students with notebooks, a straight installation of Apache works in Windows with the Windows firewall and virus checkers turned off. The Windows firewall and virus checkers spoil almost every installation of everything and students are used to switching them off. With those items off, MySQL and PHP slip in as smooth as cholesterol into an artery. Vista and Macs have strange security arrangements where things randomly refuse to work in class and they have to take the machines back to the shop or whoever installed the operating system.
My suggestion for the future, when Webmin and related packages can do everything that cpanel does, is to set up your local machine, using your existing operating system, and your hosted VPS with exactly the same lineup of Apache, MySQL/PostgreSQL, PHP, Webmin, the other mins, Drupal, dotProject, and WebERP/XRMS. We can then use one Web interface for everything and forget Windows, Linux, Unix, the perpetual Gnome/KDE fight, the annoying Mac differences, and the dreaded Vista.
Of course we have to make all those web applications change to use one themeing system so they all use the same theme because then all the buttons will be the same.
Quick! Look out your window. Is that a flock of winged piglets up in the sky?