I am developing a new site for a client, and set him the task of finding his own web hosting. I gave him a list of requirements which included perl / cgi access, and therefore a Unix / Linux server operating system. He shopped around and decided GoDaddy.com had a package that would suit his needs. I agreed with the specs and he went ahead.

Several weeks have passed and last night I logged in to the server via FTP to start uploading files, and was a little surprised to see no cgi-bin. A bit of hunting around revealed that I was in the unfamiliar environment of a Windows NT server, meaning that a cgi-bin would be redundant as would the use of perl / cgi scripts for forms and a shopping cart.

Oops! Someone made a mistake that I would have to live with.

I pondered that the real problem here was not whether a Linux or Windows server would be ‘better’, but that under a Windows server environment I would need a crash course in ASP. That would slow my progress on the site significantly.

As I pouted to myself I asked my client to approach GoDaddy and see if the hosting could be moved from a Windows server to a Linux server without incurring a financial penalty. I expected no joy and prepared to research ASP, however the following happened:

• GoDaddy Tech Support sent an automated acknowledgement to my client;
• Tech Support then responded in detail on the same day;
• The advice was to log-in at their site and make the necessary changes at a “My Account” screen;
• A simple radio button and submit button enables a change in server operating systems (“ASP to CGI Hosting”) that is free, and takes 24 hours to update / complete.

I am still amazed at how flexible this approach is! I thought for sure that a host would have a list of hurdles and hoops such as payment of a change fee, cancellation of account / establishment of a new account, or some other bureaucratic approach to penalising you for being a nuisance. But the GoDaddy service proposition is a stand-out, and I think sets the standard for other hosts (and ISPs, come to think of it) in terms of putting customers first.

I’m impressed!

Today Opera release an upgrade to the Windows and Linux version of it’s Version 8 Opera browser, labelled as 8.01. At the same time they released version 8 Opera browser for the Macintosh operating system. We don’t mind the Opera Browser to be honest, but find Firefox superior for our purposes for two reasons: (1) Firefox is free and Open Source versus Opera that is proprietary and either a purchased or advertisement supported and (2) we love the Firefox extension system. However, we certainly prefer Opera to Internet Explorer because of much tighter security and better W3C standards compliance. Some sites make a big deal that this is a security upgrade being quietly released. Frankly, all browser upgrades now include some security enhancements and unfortunately if they say that is a major cause of the release, people try to trumpet how they had flaws. Darned if they do and darned if they don’t. Recent and regular updates are the key — and of course they include security enhancements if it is a decent company.

In other browser news, AOL has released an update for Netscape 8 which fixes an IE XML problem and several bugs. You can download the free updated browser here. Microsoft also released a patch to IE in their last patch Tuesday which you should already have if you use XP, but if not you can get it via Windows Update.

Microsoft has decided to strategically take on open-source software as a true competitor according to this article at News.com. Open Source software has long been taking business from such expensive competitors and in the long run that is a good thing for the consumer and businesses.

LAMP is the combination of four things used in combination from the open-source arena:
L is for Linux,
A is for Apache Web Server,
M is for MySql, and
P is for PHP, Perl or Python.

Used in combination, or as a stack in the parlance of the web engineers, they offer a formidible set of capabilities, with much lower risk of virus propogation and much less bloat generating great speed advantages.

Microsoft’s response, according to that article, is to argue that its products are cheaper when you look to the total cost of ownership: maintenance, upgrades, support, etc. In reality, however, I think just the opposite will be true for many organizations and individuals. Further, Microsoft is going to be offering some express or lite versions of software in an effort to cut the up front costs. Don’t fall for it, it is just a hook to eventually force you to buy the more expensive versions down the road. Competition is a good thing when done fairly. So go Microsoft, compete, but compete by doing a better job.

Today Microsoft released updates to it’s popular windows software.

On todays list of released updates by level of importance are these:
Critical (3)
Important (4)
Moderate (3)

There are people with legitimate need to run Windows Server (like the boss will fire you if you don’t). Today Microsoft released Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). It offers increased security. You should certainly peddle right over to MS and get a copy if you are running their server software. They expect to shortly release a similiar update for their small business server as well.

Microsoft is further investing in the to-go video market to support the Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center. For $20 a year for a premium membership, you get content from many big name partners including Fox Network, MSNBC and so forth. Because these sources already underwrite the cost of production, they can afford to fill this market with content. It will be interesting to see how to-go videos, podcasts, and other items like this that give people alternatives to reading a magazine or the paper on their commute or wait time.

The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday that Microsoft has a special list of clients who receive security fixes before the general public. The only disclosed recipient thus far is the United States Air Force. The concern is that if anyone can intercept the update, analize it for the flaw being corrected, and beat the general release, then they have a gaping flaw that can be exploited on a major league level.

Let’s stop and think a minute. Microsoft updates software with patches every day. Not everyone goes for the latest update (indeed, how many users are still on Windows 98 as we speak in 2005?). Further, the updates are freely released. So the same risk exists with every update, just on a slightly smaller scale. If Microsoft didn’t pre-test the release — and they sometimes don’t install well — and instead sent that release to the general public to test, there would be hundreds of thousands of unhappy people when the install failed.

What major software maker wouldn’t want to release a beta or any update if they have the time to do it. Early reports were off-base (no pun intended) on this one, as this is probably a good thing. Read this later report to get a more objective view of the program and it’s value.