It seems that one of the great decisions before me is the choice of technologies. Microsoft or open source? Microsoft has the complete stack: operating system, development tools, web server, application server, and office programs. Open source has counter offers: operating system, web server, application servers, and office programs. Microsoft is by far the more popular stack, especially among companies. (On the other hand, defense agencies have a lot of positions for opern source technologies including PHP and Ruby on Rails.)
None of my current computers will support Windows Vista. If we assume that Windows XP is gone (not necessarily true) and that one must either run Windows Vista or Windows Server 2003 (or Windows Server 2008) then I need a more powerful computer. Possibly a computer that can support multiple virtual PC guests, although I am not sure that the Microsoft licenses allow Windows to run as a guest virtual OS under a non-Microsoft OS like Linux.
If I had to, I could purchase a new computer (probably from TigerDirect) and put Windows on it. I would probably purchase the Microsoft MSDN package -- it uses a subscription model of $1200 for the first year and $800 for successive years -- to get the Windows license and the other licenses that I need for the Microsoft stack. Those licenses would include Windows, SQL Server, Sharepoint, APS.NET, IIS, Visual Studio, C#, and MS-Office.
The Microsoft route is expensive. I am considering the open source route. Linux instead of Windows. MySQL instead of SQL Server. Apache instead of IIS. PHP instead of ASP.NET.
I have a computer here that can run Linux (it does now) with Apache. I have installed PHP but Apache is not recognizing it; I have to adjust the configuration. In time, I am sure I can find the problem, correct it, and get PHP running. That opens the door for CMS systems like Joomla and Drupal.
A good chunk of today was spent with Apache, PHP, and configuration files. I made some progress but not enough; Apache serves static pages but does not recognize PHP. More work for me this week-end!
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