Back in 1997 when the majority of web sites were being served from UNIX servers I chose to use Windows servers. I chose Windows servers because they gave the fastest server side development environment with ASP and Access databases. I could cut my teeth on server side programming without killing my brain trying to learn Perl and CGI.
I am an entrepreneur. I don't care much for technology for technologies sake. I care about technology for what it can do for us as humans. Business is where we can bring about products and services that we can all gain value from and improve our lives.
Windows servers allowed me to focus less on the technical aspects and focus more on the business rules, functions and features of the products and services I wanted to deliver. At that time my sites were simple directories for real estate, motor cars and local sites. Over the following 2 years I got more excited about the Windows platform as a means for more and more people like me to bring about innovations to the internet - fast.
Windows continues to be a great platform to develop dynamic, interactive, database driven sites with ASP, ASP.Net with Access or SQL Server database back ends. This is a wonderful platform to learn the basics of what it takes to develop such a site. ASP and Access provide a solid environment for anyone to learn the basics of coding and databases. The work produced with ASP and Access can be easily converted to ASP.Net and SQL Server to be far more scalable (handle more people using the site at one time).
ASP is a server side programming language based on Basic. Basic is a beginners programming language. Access is a simple desktop database application available with Microsoft Office that provides many wizards and tools to quickly develop a functional database. You will find many learning resources, tutorials and free code and samples for both ASP and Access across the internet.
Once you have developed or copied and pasted some code and server side databases together you will gain an incredible amount of confidence. You will naturally move on to more advanced projects. You will also be open to a whole new world of freely downloadable web applications (open source and generally free) to modify and try on your sites. In doing this you will come across sites written in PHP and ASP.net requiring MySQL or SQL server databases. If you are running your sites on a Windows server you can plat around with the whole world of server side scripting languages: from ASP to PHP, ASP.Net and even Perl!
The Windows Server hosting environment will help a beginner gain confidence and skills in the basics of developing a dynamic web application. Then it will allow you to progress to more advanced web applications using a mix of ASP, ASP.Net, PHP with MySQL and SQL server back-end. A good Windows host will allow you to run ASP, ASP.net and PHP with MySQL or SQL server all on the one site. You will find a Windows hosting account will give you far more freedom and flexibility to run a wide range of web applications and allow you to get a dynamic web site up and running fast.
Today I still prefer to prototype a site with ASP and then once proven move it to ASP.Net or PHP so it is scalable. ASP allows me to quickly get my ideas up and running fast. With feedback and if it is successful I can invest more time in a more appropriate language for the application with ASP.Net or PHP. A Windows hosting environment provides me this flexibility.
If you're looking to start in the world of developing web sites or want to take your web design skills to the next level, the world of Windows hosting is a good place to start. It will allow you to develop your skills with a very simple coding language and database with ASP and MS-Access. The Windows hosting environment will feel familiar with concepts you are used to, from using the Windows operating system on your desktop or notebook. And when you're ready to take your projects further with ASP.Net or PHP your Windows server will be able to handle that too.
In a world where time is money and both are in short supply, flexibility is key. A Windows hosting environment will provide you with the necessary flexibility to save both time and money and get your web projects up and running faster.
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