Murphy wrote:

>I am currently evaluating our LAN requirments as we move towards a new
>enterprise.
>We require db & front end and a dynamic web site.
>
>Until recently I would have developed using:
>MS SQL Server
>IIS
>ASP.NET
>MS Access front end
>MS Exchange
>
>I find thr thought of a Linux solution appealing because of the $ savings
>and the challenge although I am confident of my abilities in the MS World.
>
>What thoughts does the group have on running Linux based solutions for the
>above ?
>Apache ==> Web Server
>MySQL ==> db Server
>PHP ==> Dyanmic website
>
>However I am unsure of the db front end and the mail server solution ?
>
>Would I still us MS Access, can it connect to MySQL ? is it complex to mix
>MS & linux solutions as I know how well Access & SQL Server work together.
>
>Thanks
>
>Murphy
>
A LAMP solution -- Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP -- would be a good idea...
depending.

You're going to have to do some work -- moving from Access to an SQL
data base management system may not be trivial; not in terms of
performance (almost any relational data base management system [RDBMS]
will vastly out perform Access), but more in terms of design. When you
migrate to or do a redesign of an RDBMS, you really need to pay
attention to the basics. If you've done a good job of developing your
schema and you've got an efficient data base design now, migrating the
schema and your tables content to, say, MySQL will not be difficult. On
the other hand, if you've got a mess, well, you've got a mess that
you'll have to clean up before you can really do much of anything. My
experience has been that most (not all by any means, but most) Access
implementations leave a great deal to be desired in terms of efficient
RDBMS design and require redesign work (frequently a lot of redesign
work) before a successful migration can be carried out. One basic
requirement is that you speak SQL fluently or you'll get nowhere quickly
-- if you don't have a good grasp of efficient table design and query
performance, you'll have a great deal of trouble no matter what RDBMS
"engine" you decide to go with.

There is nothing "wrong" with MySQL. It's fast, it's efficient, and it
does everything you would expect from an RDBMS. MySQL works well with
PHP (either 3.x, 4.x, or 5.x) and PHP works well with HTML and Apache
(and all of them work well with UNIX/Linux). What none of them are is
"click and drool," which seems to be a tremendous down side in the MS
world. The fact is, you need to give serious thought to your data base
design without caring what the engines are in front of that design:
stick to standard HTML (which means you build web pages that do not rely
on, heaven help you and your customers, Active-X), stick to ANSI and ISO
standard SQL, and figure out what to do with PHP in between the web page
and the data base (PHP is just a query - response interface between HTML
and SQL, not an end-all, be-all like Access tries [and fails] to be).

When you say "mail," what do you mean? For your internal users -- look
hard at Mozilla or Firefox and Thunderbird. For mass mailings -- Linux
comes with it, sendmail works just fine (and interfaces with PHP pretty
easily).

When you talk about "dynamic website" (if I understand what you mean by
that) go look at Amazon.com and Ebay.com -- they're both standard HTML
in front of PHP in front of an RDBMS (no, not MySQL in Amazon's case,
but you can't afford a stripped-down custom Oracle like they can). Look
at the source for their web pages (Ctrl-U in Mozilla or Firefox) and see
some of what they do. Get familiar with style sheets while you're at it.

One thing you do want to do, if you're going to bite the bullet, is
avoid like the plague any "vendor extensions;" i.e., if it's not ANSI or
ISO standard, don't do it (because it will come back to haunt you and
your customers). If you haven't learned that lesson in the MS world,
learn it well before you migrate to the UNIX or Linux world. One thing
you should avoid in an RDBMS is stored procedures and triggers -- these
look like they're convenient (a trigger event causes a stored procedure
to execute), but they can be the death of you in a dynamic data base
with a lot of hits coming from a web server (read up on them and test,
test, test before you ever think about implementing these things); the
sizzle is a lot better than the steak.

You can get to MySQL (and most other RDBMS') with ODBC drivers -- if you
like pain and agony and enjoy reinventing the wheel periodically, that
is. Basically, go one way or go the other but don't try to mix the two
-- in the real world, trying to front an RDBMS with MS stuff is not a
good idea. Build your HTML and PHP applications to the way you want them
and forget about fooling around with MS, you'll be happier.

Bear in mind that the UNIX and Linux philosophy is that a program or
utility does one thing and does it well -- shoot for that and you'll
have a system that will be much, much easier to maintain and improve.
Your goal in life is no telephone calls at three in the morning; a LAMP
implementation might cost you a little in the beginning but it will pay
off in uninterrupted sleep.