In the last 14 days I’ve setup about 20 websites. I’ve published 3 of the to the web, and 2 are in or near production. The only interesting thing is that I’m a systems administration person, not a web developer. I knew a little HTML from around y2k, and picked up a basic understanding of CSS before getting started with web matrix, but really knew a pretty limited amount about mySQL/apache/php configuration, and had gotten stuck on one or other of those phases more than once when I was working on side projects. I’ve been looking for opportunities to add a new specialty, so I wanted to see what was around to help me work with the Windows 7 environment I know and love to test out all the poplar new CMS systems: Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Orchard, Umbraco CMS, DotNetNuke, nopCommerce, etc.
So how is a sysadmin cranking out modern, dynamic, database driven sites like a banshee? WebMatrix, free from Microsoft. Seriously, it’s @!#$!@& sick: lightweight, and makes creating one of these sites a 5 minute point a click and fill out a form or two process.
I’m writing this from a dual core 1.6ghz laptop with no dedicated graphics and only 2gb ram. Spotify is streaming some Phantogram for me, and web matrix is installing nopCommerce on the 2nd monitor I have the lappy driving. Writing the post in live writer, outlook running so I get all my email, and a few torrents going in the background and still I’m getting respectable performance.
Check out web matrix, even if it’s just so you can quickly get a hands-on experience with some of the web platforms you hear people talking about and see jobs on CL for all the time. You just might be blown away, and at the least you should appreciate being able to quickly setup a local development environment.