Happen to need both ASP.NET and PHP running on the same IIS server? Josh Holmes (and Mark Brown) have you covered with this new presentation posted to Josh's blog.

I got a question the other day about running both ASP.NET and PHP on the same server and whether or not it works. The short answer I gave is "Yes". The longer answer, I’m going to give here. In point of fact, both ASP.NET and PHP work really well on the instance of IIS. They can’t share session state but otherwise it’s a very peaceful existence.

The slides from the presentation are included in the post. There's also a full tutorial on how to get things set up correctly so that PHP and ASP.NET can play nicely on the same machine.

As Ruslan Yakushev points out in this new blog entry, the same security issue that's effecting ASP.NET pages running on IIS web servers can still open up PHP scripts running on the same server.

Microsoft has recently released a Security Advisory about a security vulnerability in ASP.NET. This vulnerability exists in all versions of ASP.NET. The PHP applications running on IIS are also subject to this vulnerability if ASP.NET is enabled in IIS.

The issue allows attackers to access the contents of various files on the server and could allow them to tamper with the data inside. Ruslan notes that, while Microsoft is coming up with a fix, one of the safest things you can do is either completely disable ASP.NET in the IIS server or use this workaround.

New on his blog today Brian Swan has posted an interview with Eli White (no, not that Eli White) a PHP developer and intern on the ASP.NET team there at Microsoft with some of his thoughts on Web Matrix and Razor from the perspective of someone with some PHP knowledge.

I had the good fortune of meeting Eli White, a junior at University of Washington and a PHP developer of 7 years, for the first time at the local Seattle PHP Meet Up a few months ago. [...] I had lunch with Eli last week and we talked about the work he’s doing on Web Matrix and Razor. I thought his perspective as a PHP developer on Web Matrix and Razor were worth sharing...

They talk some about Eli's background, including how he got into PHP development, what some of his initial challenges were in getting into the language, and - more on the Microsoft side - how he got involved in the ASP.NET team and the Web Matrix/Razor projects from there.

In a recent post to the phpslices.com blog there's a neutral comparison of PHP and ASP.NET based on features and a few of the common pros and cons each language has.

Consider i do not have wide experience programming with ASP.NET though i on the past used the Microsoft .NET framework. This is what i think are PRO and the CONS of both, lets consider ASP.NET 4.0 without MVC and PHP 5.3 without any framework.

Some of the pros of PHP include its low learning curve and that it's multiplatform with cons being things like performance issues and that it's more web-centric than some other languages. ASP.NET's pros include its inherent use of the .NET framework and the tools available for it with cons being that it's not Open Source, you need a Windows license to use it and that fewer web hosting providers support it.

NETTUTS.com has posted the second part of their series looking to help PHP developers understand a bit more about the world of ASP.NET. This second part gets a bit more advanced than the first part.

It's been a hard climb for me, as a PHP guy for many years, to get to grips with ASP.NET. However I've found many good things in the framework, and have come to appreciate the power of the C# language - without losing my love for PHP.

He talks about using a development method he's come up with (rather than ASP.NET WebForms or ASP.NET MVC) because of his standards for the output, their reliance on Javascript and why he chose to learn the base .Net framework. He shows how to create a master page (template), work with custom classes, hook the script into databases and handling user controls.

If you're a PHP developer and have ever wanted to know a bit more about the world of ASP.NET, you're in luck. In this new post to the NETTUTS.com site, Chris Taylor walks you through some of the basics and how the language compares to PHP.

This tutorial, for PHP developers, will provide you with an introduction to ASP.NET using the C# language. If you've wondered what ASP.NET is about, this tutorial will strive to answer at least some of your questions. Even if you're an ardent open-source fan, ASP.NET contains some techniques and features that are useful to know about. And, as some might say, it's good to know your enemy!

After a brief introduction to what the language is, he gets right into building a sample application, a basic form created by the ASP.NET wizard. He looks at using debug mode, viewing the structure of the application (in the IDE) and the code behind some of the files. He also covers server-side controls, configuration files, what PHP calls superglobals, and includes a cheat sheet to cover some of the things he's covered so far.

Brandon Savage has posted a response to a recent set of benchmarks as run comparing ASP.NET and PHP's processing speeds.

But benchmarks, for all their decision-making aid, fail under the best of circumstances for one simple reason: they’re not real life. Never more is this true than in Joe Stagner's blog post on whether Windows or Linux, and PHP or ASP was faster. [...] Benchmarks come loaded with all sorts of problems. It doesn’t matter if it’s Microsoft doing them or Apple doing them; they don’t mimic real-world conditions, and any number of factors affect how the benchmarks are rendered.

Keeping these things in mind, Brandon looks at some of the issues he found with how the benchamrks were run, the largest of which was comparing the ASP.NET results (with byte code caching) to a PHP install without APC enabled.

In his latest blog entry looks at something that impressed him about the PHP community in response to this article taking about the speed differences between ASP.NET and PHP.

The PHP community took this in stride because we understand that ASP.NET has its uses and there are situations where it is the better choice. I am proud of the PHP community because no one (as Joe supposed we would) raised the battle flag and flamed him, calling him a Microsoft shill.

He talks about how far the PHP community has come and why it's become as strong as it is - core developers involved in everyday things, respect for other community members and how there's "always a spot at the table" for any PHP developer to come and share stories or just enjoy those of others.

Cal also includes some good tips for getting involved in your local and the global communities (like blogging, IRC or contributing back to the PHP project).

This post on the JankoAtWarpSpeed blog started off a discussion between PHP and ASP.NET developers as to why one would go for the first over the second.

The first thing that came up to my mind was that PHP is quite simple language comparing to ASP.NET (.NET actually) which is a complete framework that offers a wide range of possibilities (yeah I made a comparison). Maybe PHP has a simple learning curve comparing to ASP.NET, but why would web designers care for data access layer or OOP anyway? But on the other hand, it doesn't mean that web designers should limit their selves just to PHP. Why not be familiar with other technologies as well?

The post has lots of comments from both sides of the fence, each espousing their language of choice. Reasoning ranges from "because ASP.NET is a Microsoft product" to the price of ASP.NET hosters to PHP's open source-ness and the much different learning curves.

On the PseudoCoder blog Matt has a new post - "PHP is a spork, Not a City Destroying Monster":

Here’s an FJM style breakdown of Carl McDade's well thought out and persuasive article ("PHP is a skill, not a profession"). Haha...no really it's just flamebait crap.

Matt makes light of a lot of the things said in the Hiveminds article, including Carl's comments about the importance of PHP and how it compares to Carl's language of choice, ASP.NET.