A quick comparison
I wrote this post in 2005, more than 19 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It may be very out of date, partially or totally incorrect.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- Programming in an outdated, insecure, hard to use environment: priceless.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.