Now we are going to examine some programming languages used to build dynamic websites that interact with databases. These languages run on the web server. They are a major step up from traditional web page development languages such as HTML which run on the client computers. The Open Source product is PHP (which stands for Hypertext Preprocessor in case you wanted to know). The Microsoft competitors are ASP (Active Server Pages) and ASP.NET (Active Server Pages in the Microsoft .NET environment.) ASP.NET is more expensive, more complicated, and more powerful than its sibling. For simplicity's sake we will refer to Microsoft's offerings as ASP.
As you know PHP is free. ASP is also free but may require Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Server) which is not free. Uploading, downloading files, encrypting passwords, and sending emails from web pages will probably cost you much more money with ASP than with PHP. As discussed in our previous article (Reason 5 Linux, Apache, and MySQL) LAMP's database management system is either free or quite inexpensive when used with massive databases. In contrast Microsoft's SQL Server is pricey. I should let you know that my Internet Service Provider usually charges for MySQL accessibility. When available SQL Server access will cost more. We have been through the monetary issues before. Let's compare some other aspects of these two web programming languages.
Perhaps not surprisingly ASP resembles Microsoft's popular Visual Basic programming language. PHP is based on the C++ programming language, a much more professional solution than Visual Basic. For technical reasons PHP programs tend to run faster than their ASP counterparts, even if the latter requires more powerful hardware. Because it is open source, PHP has access to a wider range of individuals who increase its functionality. PHP talks to a wide range of databases, but especially focuses on MySQL databases. In contrast ASP works best with SQL Server. While you can mix and match these components you are usually best off to combine components on the same side of the LAMP/Microsoft fence. After all, they were built to work together.
Despite Microsoft's unbelievable clout, PHP is the most popular web programming language. Some reasons for its success are speed, increased security, and ease of programming. Once again in my opinion, whenever there is a real contest Microsoft comes up short. An ever-increasing number of computer specialists agree with me.
Perhaps you don't want to learn three or four products. (Who can blame you?) What you really would like to get the most out of an old computer that's collecting dust in the basement. Here Linux really wallops Windows as seen in our next article.
The kernel is the part of the Linux operating system that handles system management. It is not accessible to ordinary users. You may run Damn Small Linux as the root user and learn about the kernel. Once you demonstrate your mastery of system concepts you may be given permission to apply your knowledge on larger Linux systems.
Part of the kernel's work is managing processes. There are basically four such functions: controlling process execution, allocating memory for processes, scheduling processes, and managing resource access for processes. Let's look briefly at each function.
The kernel creates, terminates, and coordinates processes. The root user and sometimes a regular user have access to these functions. It is possible to terminate a haywire process, one for example that has taken over the computer virtually blocking other processes.
The kernel allocates memory for processes. Root users and their authorized agents may review statistics on memory usage and improve system performance.
Scheduling and resource access help maximize system performance and minimizing user waiting times. Knowledge of how processes work and what is really happening in a busy system can improve system performance and user satisfaction. Sometimes it isn't necessary to spend a penny to improve performance. There is room in the marketplace for specialists in Linux scheduling and resource management. You cannot become such a specialist overnight but you can start by learning the tools with Damn Small Linux.
A given process is identified by a process number. During the course of system execution processes terminate, by themselves or because some one shut them down. Over time other processes are created. The process number always increases until the system is restarted. Some processes are system processes; they are part of the overhead in running a system. They work behind the scenes. Other processes are user processes, doing the work that users actually want.
The ps command provides information on running processes. For example, it may provide the name of the user associated with the process, the process identifier, the identifier of the father process (the one that created - the technical word is spawned) the given process, when the process was spawned and other information that may help manage a busy system.
I am sure that you can guess what the kill command does. It has several options, for example, some haywire processes are more difficult to remove than others.
Levi Reiss has sinced written about articles on various topics from Touring Italy, Travel and Leisure and Food and Drink. Levi Reiss has written ten computer and Internet books either alone or with a co-author. The books are over, at least for the time being, replaced by a multitude of websites, including global wine, Italian wine, Italian travel, and health and nutritional. Levi Reiss's top article generates over 450000 views. to your Favourites.