The race between the Windows and Linux operating systems is multifaceted, and one aspect revolves around the PHP scripting language. But PHP is merely an item from an infrastructure of software, a solution stack designed to be the foundation of websites and servers. Essentially, Microsoft has recently upped the stakes in the Windows - Linux face-off by ensuring closer PHP integration with its own operating system in the much larger confrontation between LAMP and WISP. LAMP of course stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. But now Microsoft comes with its own alternatives for an operating system, a web server, a database management system, offering Windows, IIS and SQL. Still, one thing that Microsoft cannot do without is PHP, and this is why the Redmond company is embracing the scripting language.

"Why is WISP the new LAMP? Well, up to now, PHP developers, although they will be developing on top of Windows, the platform of choice for running their web servers etc, was Linux and Apache, with a MySQL backend. Why? Well, they were designed and written to work effectively together. PHP could be handled by IIS, using CGI, however it didn't give the level of performance that running PHP on a Linux/Apache platform gave, hence it became the platform of choice. With the announcement of FastCGI however, that's changing. This FastCGI extension is built into Server 2008, but you can download it for free, for IIS 5.1 and 6. Just a quick note - IIS has had 0 critical updates," explained Matt McSpirit, Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist.

You have of course already been able to read about the work Microsoft and Zend have poured into enhancing PHP performance on Windows, and about the availability of Go Live FastCGI Extension for IIS6.0 and IIS5.1. But now, McSpirit offers the true perspective of where Microsoft is going with the integration of FastCGI into Windows Server 2008. "So, you've now got a strong platform for development and actually running your web applications in Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7.0, along with a great database offering, all of which connect with PHP in a way that enables efficient, streamlined and powerful performance - something that was only available to PHP developers running on LAMP in the past", McSpirit added.