.NET group of Intranet developers

.NET group of Intranet developers stay true to all things Microsoft and even claim many Microsoft applications as being features.  In my opinion this is only by right of association and being able to integrate Microsoft mail and contact features does not warrant much excitement.  At the same time there are some interesting features that are available through the .NET developer tools and this can make for an adequate Intranet solution, though there are some qualifiers.

In general .NET is not as strong an Intranet platform as other programming languages, in particular PHP.  There are many reasons for this statement; the top three being:

• PHP is faster and more stable than .NET

• .NET is only suitable for Window platform and PHP can run on Windows, Unix, Linix & Solaris

• PHP has a much larger developer community and is much more popular as an industry standard

Security is comparable between the two and for sheer flexibility and extensibility PHP is the stronger programming language for an Intranet.

Regarding Microsoft Sharepoint, I have a fundamental issue with needing invest significant dollars into licensing before you even start development.  Then you either need a .NET programmer or you need to pay one to customize your application.  The result, high expense and married to Microsoft (Windows server, Windows applications, Windows programming - ONLY). There are some who might need the comfort of a Microsoft application and, if you also happen to have a big budget, then Sharepoint may be the best solution.