Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Microsoft and Zend: Faster PHP for Windows

October 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Microsoft and Zend: Faster PHP for Windows

TAGS: Open Source

Microsoft has been on an open source tear lately. Yesterday it was SocialText. Today it's Zend. (Oracle might want to take note: this is how you partner with open source companies.) (OK. No more Oracle commentary.) (Until the next post. :-)

As announced today, as reported by InformationWeek:

Microsoft has been working with Zend to get Zend's PHP open-source scripting language to run faster on its Web server. Windows Information Server has been Microsft's prime platform for its own high-performance language, Active Server Pages. But with Web sites frequently including non-Microsoft technologies, Windows Information Server was handicapped when developers were working with PHP.

No more, apparently. Microsoft knew that to compete with Apache on the web server front, the all-encompassing ecosystem model wasn't going to work. Performance matters on the web - religiously devoted to Microsoft products or not, an IT guy is going to be drawn-and-quartered if the website crawls because Microsoft can't push PHP as fast as the open source alternative.

And so they're partnering.

You've got to admire Microsoft. For all the company has done to try to kill Linux and open source generally, its lack of shame is amazing...and even admirable. The company is moving on. I know people whose perspectives of Microsoft are petrified circa 1980s/1990s. That's unwise. The market is moving fast, and Microsoft is moving with it.

Now with Zend, they're moving even faster.

Posted by Matt Asay on October 31, 2006 03:31 PM

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