PHP vs ASP.NET, what is the future?

A lot of the servers are Linux nowadays, and it seems it will stay that way for a while. So I would say PHP. But PHP has a lot of shortcomings that it still needs to overcome. The engine itself and the language.

I don't know if you can find any numbers but I think that you'll find that the government and big (conservative) companies probably prefer ASP.net because they feel more comfortable dealing with big companies like IBM and Microsoft and they don't necessarily trust free / open source systems. The start-ups and companies that once were start-ups (like Facebook) and the smaller companies are quite happy with open source and the price is right. What looks best on the CV probably depends on what kind of organization you apply to.

I would have to disagree with everybody and say Python is the future. It can handle big numbers and can do multi threading along with its many capabilities from its extensive work over the many years. In case your wondering who uses Python, well google uses Python on their web servers in addition to their google go language and people in the stock market use python to process large numbers. So clearly Python is creeping up on php and will eventually dominate the web as the number one server side language. Especially with its file extension only has two letters (.py) instead of three like .php or .asp or .aspx so this is a great advantage to Python when it comes to clean url's.

So my question is, what is most popular in the market, now and what will be popular for the next 2-3 years? PHP or ASP.NET?

You may find so many sites designed with PHP because its an opensource language and many start-up companies may not be able to afford costs of servers and licenses that are not open source. Also, there are many softwares written in opensource languages like PHP these days for building sites, blogs, forums and others with little knowledge of programming so PHP may seem more popular but i've never said more professional.

Which one sounds better in a CV? Or looks good when you apply for a masters degree.

This so depends on where you're applying for a job and remember that PHP is opensource so there's no body that provides a sort of qualification test that marks you as one who can confidently handle the language but ASP.NET which is by Microsoft sure has such exams which when passed can guaranty you some better chances with an employer. Am not saying someone who has passed an exam must be practically better than someone who had no exam to take but it may give you a better chance when they see such qualifications on your CV.

Thanks for all the replies. :D

Am not saying someone who has passed an exam must be practically better than someone who had no exam to take but it may give you a better chance when they see such qualifications on your CV.

I totally agree on that.

Ok, I know PHP is free/open source, I like working with PHP but I think is time to learn some ASP as well :D

Can you recomment any good book on ASP.NET and C#? Because the functionality will be implimented in C#...

And also is there a Master Degree in Web Development? I have searched but nothing comes up, maybe it has another name that I don't know?

Begining ASP.NET by imar spanjaars is a good book to start.

There is nothing like master degree in web development.

In web development arena - you have to get certifications from Microsoft like MCTS - MCTP

or PHP.

I would suggest that you go on with python or PHP... Just to think that Linux is more favorable with these languages... and we all know that Linux is much better than windows when it comes to server stuff.

I would suggest that you go on with python or PHP... Just to think that Linux is more favorable with these languages... and we all know that Linux is much better than windows when it comes to server stuff.

Indeed and you can't get Asp.net or Internet Explorer on Linux unless you get drunk on wine. ;)

Indeed and you can't get Asp.net or Internet Explorer on Linux unless you get drunk on wine

It took me several minutes to understand the wine joke :D

MS ASP ASP.net are usually larger companies, tied in to support agreements with MS
PHP can be large or small or startup companies
licensing is simpler in php for your own code
php has a far larger market share
but if you get to an ASP site, the contract is longer term
freelance=php
corporate=asp
single dependant languages like GO, not worth it till after you get employed by Google
that being said, my development is Python backend and php frontend, the python backend system is much tighter, faster, less processor intensive to accomplish the same task.
the php frontend means I can recode it without thought, php is idiot resistant(unfortunately not idiot proof, I can still screw it up) and does not require any strong typing, I can add any feature created by any other php user

I would go with any of these at your stage. On the other hand, if I had to recruit a grad today I would be impressed if he/she understood the intricacies of client server architecture, rather than be an expert in the syntax of a language (if one can be an expert at all in 2 years). Languages/frameworks are just tools helping us out with problems of the web. Tools get refined, modified, sometimes new tools comes up, sometimes new problems come up. Don't get into the hassle of which language is better/powerful- Each has its pros and cons. Try to understand the problem that it is trying to address. if you know the way you can reach somewhere as fast in a minivan, as would another guy, with a lamborghini, who has lost his way.

With the people that think Python is the future I have to say this: Python is a terrific language and sure it is used in web applications by big and small companies but I don't think it will be the next web language as it's not built for it. I don't think the developers or community really want it to be. The only reason PHP took Perl's place is that it automatically had support and did what it's used for, which is lacking in Python. I think the next popular web language is still in the makings, PHP does have a ton of issues and I believe some of them can't be fixed by PHP itself. Languages just get simpler and simpler and that's exactly what the next web language will be, simpler.

allways php is the best way for web development

Try both.

For web development nothing is better than PHP.

If you do decide to try Asp.net then don't bother with WebForms, go straight for MVC would be my advice.