[techtalk] Dynamic Web sites on Linux

[jennyw at griffon.personic.com]

Just wondering if anyone cared to share their experience with developing
database aware Web sites on the Linux platform.  For example, I know that
there are several tools out there, like PHP, Enhydra, Locomotive, of course
Perl and Python, etc.  I'm looking for something that's relatively easy to
use to build a Web site that accesses a database, and the pros and cons of
each. I know, this is a really open ended question ...

I'm looking for things like:

* Reliability (e.g., CF 4.5 might be unstable -- on other OSes, users are
asking Allaire to make CF 4.0 available instead of only allowing them to buy
4.5)
* Scalability (e.g., how many users, pages, and/or transactions can a
platform realistically support per minute or hour?).
* Community support (e.g., Perl and Python have great support communities;
Cold
Fusion is okay, but their forums are slow and the search facility is poor).
* Cost (e.g., Enhydra, Perl, Python, Apache, and PostgreSQL are free; CF
costs $999; WebLogic and Oracle can be pretty expensive solutions).
* Availability and release history (e.g. Enhydra doesn't yet support EJBs
directly; CF 4.5 is the first Linux release; Perl 5 has been around for
years).
* Speed of development (e.g., CF allows you to get started right away, but
maintainability can be an issue; Enhydra can take a while to setup, and it
can take a while to develop a Web site)
* Unique features (e.g. Enhydra's XML C is a great way to separate business
logic from presentation; Python is a pure object-oriented scripting
language).

Thanks!

Jen



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