Website help

[Saracen]

I am getting my own web-site and have a choice of Windows and Linux servers.

At the start I will just do some basic HTML pages, but not sure what content I will want to include in the future and basically I like to play around with different languages and see what I can do!

I've listed the features supported by the host on each server type below. So my question is, does choosing either of these limit the potential of what I can do in the future? I guess there are advantages/disadvantages of both, and some people will be totally against one type of server or the other. Any (preferably unbiased and not just 'x servers are c**p') advice appreciated :)
Comments like 'if you go for x you won't be able to do y, but you will be able to do z' are great.

Standard on both: SSI, CGI, PHP4

Windows server: ASP, Perl, CGI, ISAPI, SHTML and IHTML scripting support. ODBC for Access, Paradox, dBase and Excel

Linux server: MY SQL database, PHP My Admin, CGI, C, Perl and Python scripting

Personally I am currently leaning towards windows as ASP maybe useful for work. Am open to be persuaded otherwise though !
With PHP, having a quick read on it suggests it is best to use Linux and My SQL databases - does it work OK with ODBC on windows?

A 2nd question - A friend of mine has a website where she is showing her photos. At the moment she has subdirs for each 'album' with thumbnails and full size photos. All the pages are individually set-up with the link to each photo hardcoded into the html. I'm sure this can be done dynamically - is this something PHP or ASP can do (or something else?).


Thanks :)

[mholtum]

Originally posted by Saracen
I am getting my own web-site and have a choice of Windows and Linux servers.

At the start I will just do some basic HTML pages, but not sure what content I will want to include in the future and basically I like to play around with different languages and see what I can do!

I've listed the features supported by the host on each server type below. So my question is, does choosing either of these limit the potential of what I can do in the future? I guess there are advantages/disadvantages of both, and some people will be totally against one type of server or the other. Any (preferably unbiased and not just 'x servers are c**p') advice appreciated :)
Comments like 'if you go for x you won't be able to do y, but you will be able to do z' are great.

Standard on both: SSI, CGI, PHP4

Windows server: ASP, Perl, CGI, ISAPI, SHTML and IHTML scripting support. ODBC for Access, Paradox, dBase and Excel

Linux server: MY SQL database, PHP My Admin, CGI, C, Perl and Python scripting

Personally I am currently leaning towards windows as ASP maybe useful for work. Am open to be persuaded otherwise though !
With PHP, having a quick read on it suggests it is best to use Linux and My SQL databases - does it work OK with ODBC on windows?

A 2nd question - A friend of mine has a website where she is showing her photos. At the moment she has subdirs for each 'album' with thumbnails and full size photos. All the pages are individually set-up with the link to each photo hardcoded into the html. I'm sure this can be done dynamically - is this something PHP or ASP can do (or something else?).


Thanks :)

I run my server on Linux and my photo gallery is "Gallery" which is dynamic http://www.ravensrealm.net/photos/ it is a freeware gallery. You can also get coppermine and 4images galleries free off the net
If your host provides cpanel you can generally install any of these from an automated script which is always good

[Saracen]

Thanks mholtum

Had a good search and found several php galleries that work on Windows servers and don't need databases.

Thats my friends site sorted out. Now just to decide if I want to go Linux or Windows :o