A good resource for an overview of web technologies

I have been working on microsoft based web technologies (.net, sql server, iis) for about an year and would like to know the opensource alternatives for the above. I have heard of LAMP, Java based technologies, ruby on rails etc. Can you please point开发者_开发知识库 me to a place where I can find more information about these and how they match up against each other. Basically I am looking for an overview of the popular web technologies in today's world.

Thanks a lot. Vijay

Hmmm, thats a bit difficult to do, as each language is unique in its design. I guess it's less a case of which is the best, but more which is the best to suit you. Your decision should rest on which language you feel most comfortable working in, for example like you i started off in asp.net 2.0, developing a few web apps... but made the switch over to php, the two are relatively the same, however i found php to be more accessible for the web based tasks i want it to do. Also i use macs primarily as i am a graphic designer in addition to being a web developer, so if i could develop in mac osx that was a big plus.

Perhaps you should start by outlining what environment you want to work in first, and what you'd want to be doing in it.

Then consider cost, we managed to slash the basic costs of running our sites by moving to php, simply because of the licensing differences.

Support is also a biggy, you'll find with open source stuff there is more around since it's generally a lot more accessible to more people, since theres little to no startup cost.

Finally the best way to find out whats best for you is to try them all! you don't have to be an expert in it to know whether its for you, just get a feel for the language and see if it feels flows better with you.

Hope this is of use to you :)

oh and finally, wikipedia has a little comparison thingy, its not really a great comparison but its better than nothing hey?

EDIT:

Hi Again.

I've done a bit of digging and i think i've found what your looking for!

This is a comparison chart someone made, in it details the pros/cons of php, python, perl, asp, and ruby.

Theres also this which is a comparison of some of the frameworks, they've missed quite a few off the php list, namely kohana which is a brilliant framework!

And finally heres a comparison of the three main server types, and their pros/cons.