I just came across an article titled "At a Glance: ASP.net vs. PHP."  Let's be clear up front: I don't know diddly-squat about PHP.  I'm not here to start yet another language battle, in a war that will never be won :)  However, I do have some comments for the article regarding ASP.NET.  And, since there doesn't seem to be a way to post comments on the "Market Day" site, you get the benefit of reading them here :)

Ian Wilson writes:

In order to develop with ASP.Net one must obtain the extremely expensive Microsoft Visual Studio Programming Suite.

I won't argue that Visual Studio 2005 Professional or Team Edition is very expensive when compared to free.  However, the author fails to mention that you can develop ASP.NET using one of the free Visual Studio Express Editions, or even your favorite text editor.  What can you do with an Express Edition?  Just aboutanythingyou canimagine.  If you really need features that aren't available in the Express Editions, chances are you're developing for a company that can afford to pay for the upgrade.  For the individual Web developer, check out Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition and one of the many starter kits that are available.

One of the arguments the author uses for PHP is the wealth of community resources.  I believe the same argument is true for ASP.NET.  Check out my list of free tools and resources.  There are lots of other great sites and online blogs for ASP.NET developers.

ASP.NET is a viable solution, even for individual developers who are community-minded, budget-conscious, and into open source.  Happy coding!

Speaking of great apps that keep getting better, there's an interesting mojoPortal vs. DotNetNuke post over at mojoPortal.  Also, take a look at the interesting comments from a DNN user (www.wwwcoder.com). 

Joe reports that a new release is just around the corner.

dasBlog continues to improve.  The list of new features is very impressive.  I was able to upgrade without much effort.  If you're looking for simple-to-use and yet very powerful blog application, dasBlog is worth a look.  Also, check out the dasBlog documentation.

• Google provides the same Gmail Web client for your domain -- for Free
  
• 2GB of space for every account you create for your domain
• Control panel to administer accounts, and even a bulk upload tool to add many accounts at once
  
• Free POP access, in case you want to download all your e-mail to Outlook or some other client so that you have your e-mail offline
• Use your domain accounts with Google Talk instant messaging service
• Customized logo for your domain
  
• Free.  Did I mention 2GB of storage for each account, free?
  

• No tools (yet) to transfer your existing e-mail
• Does not work with the Gmail Notify service
• Not integrated with Google Calendar (yet)
  
• In Beta, so you have to apply and hope you're selected to use the service
  
• In Beta, 'nuff said
  

Get a focused, first look at the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and the .NET Framework 2.0. If you currently work with Visual Basic 6, these authors fully understand the adoption and code migration issues you'll encounter. They'll step you through a quick primer on .NET Framework programming, offering guidance for a productive transition. If you already work with .NET, you'll jump directly into what's new, learning how to extend your existing skills. From the innovations in rapid application development, debugging, and deployment, to new data access, desktop, and Web programming capabilities, you get the insights and code walkthroughs you need to be productive right away.

The Open Web Design project was founded in November 2005 by Aaron "MonkeyMan" Nikula as a resource for users with no design skills to quickly put up a site and showcase their content and as a way for designers to share their designs and showcase their talent.

• Limited to 4GB of user data
• Only one instance per server
• Only executes on one processor if running on a multi-processor server
  
• Will only utilize 1GB of memory, even if the server has more

• Html Content Management
• Blogs
• RSS Feed Aggregator
  
• Event Calendar
• Search
• Image Gallery
• File Manager
• Localization
• Skinnable Design
• Host Multiple Sites From One Database

1. dasBlog is nearly as brain-dead simple to set up as you can get
2. 10 minutes of coding based on Scott's post and I had all my existing content imported into dasBlog
3. dasBlog themes are extremely easy to modify and create
4. Blog search with keyword highlighting is awesome
5. Trackbacks, pings, comments in my RSS feed, and all the other goodies I've been missing

One of the guys here at work was asking for a utility that would quickly show the size of each folder on his disk.  Josh did a search and came up with Folder Size for Windows.  This utility integrates with Windows Explorer and gives you more options (columns) when viewing the file system in Details view.  New columns that you can add to your display include:

• Folder Size
• Folder Size Sort (same as Folder Size but formatted to sort properly)
• File Count
• Folder Count
• Sibling Count

Sizes are cached and updated automatically as things change on your system.  Plenty of other features to enhance performance.

From the FCKeditor web site:

"This new version is another important step to the project. The development now is concentrated on bug fixing and stability, so this update is highly recommended. There are also some interesting new features, like the “Protected Source”, that makes it possible to use server side code in the editor and the new keyboard handling for Firefox. "

http://www.fckeditor.com/whatsnew/default.html

Microsoft has released a developer toolbar for Internet Explorer.

Wow.  Zimbra will be something to watch.  This may be the MS Exchange killer, at least for some organizations.  E-mail, group-scheduling, calendar, contacts, AJAX web client, IMAP/POP, searching, anti-virus and anti-spam support, integration with LDAP and Active Directory, and the list goes on.  All open source.  Check out the screen shots.  Can't wait to check this out.  [via TheOpenForce]

What a shame.  Matt Hawley, now a Microsoft employee, is being barred by the MS legal department from distributing his free library of ASP.NET components.  I've used these components in the past, and have found them to be fantastic tools.  Help support all the work that Matt has put into the ASP.NET community by signing the petition.

UPDATE: It appears that developer community's reaction is making a difference!

Due to other priorities and apparent curiosity in the viability of open source projects, Eric Wise has made the decision to open source his Easy Assets .NET product.  Easy Assets .NET is a web-based application created to allow organizations to track assets (computers, monitors, printers, projectors, or just about any equipment I suppose) including purchase history, warranties, service agreements, and help-desk issues.  Any organization (business, church or ministry) with more than a few computers could realize some big benefits from asset tracking.

If you find his product beneficial, I hope that you will reward Eric's efforts in the form or donations or contract work.  I look forward to hearing the results of his experiment. 

Downloads are available here.