Jacob Kaplan-Moss

A quick comparison

I wrote this post in 2005, more than 18 years ago. It may be very out of date, partially or totally incorrect. I may even no longer agree with this, or might approach things differently if I wrote this post today. I rarely edit posts after writing them, but if I have there'll be a note at the bottom about what I changed and why. If something in this post is actively harmful or dangerous please get in touch and I'll fix it.

The Microsoft way

  • Windows 2003 Server, Enterprise Edition: $3,999
  • Visual Studio.NET, Enterprise Edition: $2,499 per developer
  • SQL Server, Enterprise Edition: $19,999 per processor
  • Programming in an outdated, insecure, hard to use environment: priceless.

The Linux way

  • Debian Linux: free
  • Apache 2.0: free
  • PostgreSQL: free
  • Perl/PHP/Python: free
  • Programing in a fun, modern, secure environment: priceless.