Widnows 7 vs Windows Home Server

[jiewmeng]

i am a home user of windows 7 and really like the new features like

* jumplists

* taskbar thumbnails etc

i am also exploring benefits of homegroup, federated search and since i am a developer intending to start ASP.NET MVC 2 development from PHP, i am thinking a Windows Home Server maybe useful for me.

but what i need, IIS, homegroups etc are offered in Windows 7 too. i am wondering why will i want to have a home server instead? i believe it will offer some benefits i should know of?

[CoffeeFiend]

WHS isn't really meant for those things. It's mainly for making backups of your computers and sharing files. Win7 is all you need.

[nitroshift]

Moved to the appropriate section.

[Tripredacus]

Right, Windows Home Server (its actually a modified Server 2003) is designed to run headless. Kind of like a super-NAS. More higher-end OSes may be Storage Server 2008 or SS2008 Embedded, but like WHS, they aren't designed to be used as a workstation.

If you want to be looking at OSes that are going to be more PHP friendly, you may look at Server 2008 Web Standard. But honestly, I've yet to find any Microsoft OS (Server or otherwise) that is PHP friendly. IIS is such a pain to work with PHP (especially if you want .NET and PHP at the same time) and in my experience its just easier to use IIS for .NET and then use Apache (on different ports and DNS alias) for PHP on the same Server. However there may be a good way to do it, but I haven't been able to find it.

[CoffeeFiend]

If you want to be looking at OSes that are going to be more PHP friendly

It is equally trivial to install PHP on Win7 or 2008: 2 clicks in WebPI (platform installer). One doesn't need a fancy server OS and a separate server for that, Win7 will handle it just fine (assuming your edition includes IIS of course). I believe it would even work on WHS (much like it also works on XP and 2003). Not that I see how Win 2008 Web Edition would be more "friendly" as the install process (even the manual way) is exactly the same.

In fact, I'd just about say IIS is more PHP-friendly than Apache (it's easier to setup at least -- again, just 2 clicks; it'll even install the most popular PHP apps for you if you want it to, again, they're just one click away). So easy your stereotypical grandma could very easily do it.

Just try WebPI once and you'll see.

[Tripredacus]

Just try WebPI once and you'll see.

I wasn't sure about mentioning a program. My web server that runs Apache was installed with the XAMPP package. Also very simple. The only thing I had to do (besides creating logins) was change the port in the Apache files so it did not interfere with IIS. It was a 5 minute install, very simple.

So with this WebPI you can run PHP on the same port as IIS?