Understanding the Benefits of Using PHP

PHP has a number of interesting benefits, especially for a company on a budget. Some people view PHP as essentially a hobbyist tool, but it's a full-fledged product that you can use for enterprise development as well (see the Builder.com article at http://builder.com.com/5100-6371-1058656.html for details). One of the biggest benefits is that PHP is essentially free because it's open source, as is the main Web server it runs on ”Apache. All you need to do is download the required products and install them on your system. In fact, you'll find an amazing array of products you can use with Apache and PHP on the Apache Software Foundation site at http://www.apache.org/. Note that this site also keeps you informed about many of the conferences associated with the open source movement and many of the political issues as well.

Another important benefit of using PHP is that it runs just about anywhere. The Apache server comes in versions for Windows, NetWare, Linux, Macintosh OS/X, and most Unix systems. You can also find Apache support for larger systems such as the AS/400. In fact, there are few places that Apache doesn't run. Anywhere you can run Apache, you can likely run PHP. In the few cases you can't find a version of Apache to use for your copy of PHP, it's quite possible you can find a version of PHP that runs on another Web server for that platform.

PHP is relatively easy to transport from one system to another. Because PHP applications run as scripts (essentially text), any application you create for PHP on one platform is likely to work with a few tweaks on another platform. Google Web Services developers should find that PHP works especially well for multiple platforms. Problems can occur when you begin adding platform-specific features to an application to make it look nicer or perform better.

The creators of PHP have improved it a great deal since its initial release. For example, you no longer need Apache to run PHP (many Web sites and articles still say this is a requirement). See the "Downloading and Installing PHP" section for additional information on this topic. The open source community also provides regular patches for PHP, including the all important security patches. You can find these patches on the PHP download site. Because these patches receive an open review, many developers consider them better coded and more stable than the proprietary solutions available on the market.

Understanding the Usage of Free with Software  

Free can be a subjective term . Free doesn't necessarily mean without cost. In many cases, you see the word free , but it doesn't mean that everything about a product is free. The problem is that I haven't come up with better terminology. The use of the term free has caused so much worry for users that some of them have sued vendors over the use of the term free because it really doesn't mean inclusively free for the entire product. This article sums up the situation: http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/29/34FElinux_1.html.

The political part of the equation comes from the uncertainty of cost. If you're Microsoft and you want to dissuade someone from buying Linux, then you make those costs as high as you can without losing support from the "independent" experts who will back up your claim. On the other hand, if you're a member of the open source community, you want to make those costs as low as possible without calling your sanity into question.

This chapter won't discuss the political issues that surround the concept of free . For the purposes of this book, free means the product won't cost anything to download. You still have to consider support, installation, and management costs as part of any solution you use.