As a small software company owner I encounter customers or leads that often come with the assumption that using open source technologies is better for their web applications/sites. I believe the opposite it true. There are numerous articles that discuss this aspect on the technical perspective and most them agree that asp.net is much superior language than the other open source options, but I would like to explain my view from a diffrent approach.
The Iron Triangle of software has three points Scope, Resources and Schedule and they all affect the quality of the software. Lets look on each aspect and see where is the advantage of ASP.Net.
Resources (Cost, Budget)
I know it sounds weird, how come open source is more expensive the a technology that Microsoft developed. Well, the fact of the matter is that there is a free development tools for Asp.net which includes the code editor, web server and FTP client.
Also, MS has a free version of SQL Server that will allow you to run any small-medium size website without need to upgrade to full blown version of SQL.
Due to the scalability of ASP.Net and the amount of 3rd party controls, code samples and documentation the developer is able to deliver more features and functionality to your website for the budget you have compare to an open source solution. Which brings us to the next point.
Scope (Features)
Asp.net has direct access to the entirety of the .NET framework class libraries, which encompass a vast amount of functionality like Security , Data Access, Memory Management, user interface and network communication modules.
This allows a developer to build a richer more sophisticated application that could deliver a more stable, scalable web solution.
Time
There is always this misconception that developing with asp.net is more time consuming. The opposite is true. ASP.Net was created for RAP (Rapid application development). The tools that the developer is provided with and the framework as indicated before, allows the developer to construct the application in a rapid manner and focus his attention to the business logic. Therefore, giving the developer the opportunity to use the time that he gets in a more efficient way.
Last point I would like to make is that there is this notion that by using ASP.net for web projects you are committing your self to the "big bad wolf" Microsoft. Well, the truth of the matter is that you are not really committing to anything, you are just using a better framework/ technology to build your website. As indicated above, there is no monetary commitment to Microsoft, and when a new version of the framework comes along you could choose to upgrade or not based on the added value. The same that you would do with an open source solution.
In sum, although ASP.Net has its share of disadvantages which you could find easily by searching "ASP.Net disadvantages" in any search engine, ASP.Net is still a better option for web development today.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 9:47PM