Hi, I have a number of issues here, so if anyone can help i would be most grateful.

I am in the process of starting my own e-commerce site, i will be selling around 2500 products so will be looking at around 2550 pages in total on my website. I am using frontpage as my builder, and a webdeveloper kit to do the rest (ASP.net). The problem i have is the most webhosts charge high fees for large sites, and possible high bandwidth usage. So I spoke to a friend who advised i used a beat up old machine and linux to host my old server from my own home, as this doesn't cost me anything except my broadband access and electricity as server will run 24/7. "Great" i thought. But i am not so sure now as i believe there will be a conflict between my frontpage site and linux running it.

I don't want to have to rebuild my site on a linux web builder (for obvious reasons) plus i understand that if i try to use Server 2003 on my beat up old P3 it won't work as the machine is not powerful enough to handle it.

So can anyone advise me if there is going to be a conflict, and can i still work on the "production site" in windows and upload to my Linux server on a regular basis with out to much faffing around. Also will my database created in ASP.net work on linux and will i still be able to share the info on that database with windows machines once it is configured to work with Linux

I understand that Linux is the better option for security and ease of use?!?!? As my database will hold finacial information on it, and i understand that windoows IIS is easily read when or if the server goes down. Which I am told never happens to a Linux server as they are incredibly stable.

I am a complete noob at this. And trying very hard to keep my costs down.
Any help greatly appreciated

you're basing your entire business on FrontPage..??? good luck mate...

the Open Source project designed to run .NET is called mono, so to serve asp.NET pages you'll need mod_mono running under apache... but really it's not going to be good. why start off from day one using a technology not originally designed for the host platform? just doesn't make sense.

I you want to build a e-commerce site, why don't you use OsCommerce?
http://www.oscommerce.org/

Thanks for the responses! Though why should i need luck Frontpage? and why is this "technology" ( i am assuming you mean frontpage) no good as a host platform. i don't understand? Or are you refering to Linux as the host platform?

have you looked at the HTML code frontpage spews out ? it's ugly, it's bloated, it's broken from the start (standards perspective), it's just plain bad, and it will break in browsers other than Internet Exploiter. so unless you only plan to sell to people that use IE, I would recommend avaoiding Frontpage at all costs.

If you want to use site building software, find one that sticks more closely to the standards, not one that makes up it's own standards on the fly (or at least that's how it appears from here)

I haven't looked at the code, cos i don't know HTML. I wouldn't be able to tell whats bad or what is good!!!.
Other people i have spoken to in different forums seem to think that it's ok (which is why i went ahead and built on it). though i have just found another online shopping developement site "Actinic" so going to try that. I am however concerned that frontpage is only able to work with IE, so thanks for the advise!

I would also like to thank everyone for their comments to this thread. and the fact that you provide no real answers just berate the programs i am using and (with exception to Liakoni) provide no real help or alternatives, i guess maybe this wasn't the froum to go to for help. Thanks anyway

Do I hear pouting???

When you ask for help, you will often get it in ways you were not looking for. That's life.

Since you are running a business, it is probably important that you sell product, NOT administer an operating system, although there will be some up front administration NO MATTER WHAT OS you use. Google around a bit and spend some time trying to figure out what the long term maintainence requirements and consequences of using each OS and/or application will be.

Unfortunately, you have been greeted by a few "helpers" who have not learned the art of diplomacy. It is true that MS would love to define the standards in the interest of their own pocketbook, and MS may deserve trashing for a number of reasons, and yes, using Frontpage with linux may not be the best game plan, but to automatically dismiss you and your request for help is totally uncalled for.

It's sad to know that GNU/linux may be facing an uphill battle NOT because it isn't a viable alternative, but because PROSPECTIVE linux converts are greeted with remarks such as made to you.


Apologies for your experience. This is a great forum for information. Just ignore those few and look for people willing to help.

good luck and carry on

I think OP may be gone, so we may be talking to ourselves......

Frankly, I do not believe OP was abused in any significant way. It is a reality that---on occassion---when someone asks "How do I make A work with B to do C?"; there will a chorus saying you really should be using D or E. The asker is of course free to ignore the advice.
In these situations, it is better to re-frame the question than to simply go pouting off.
I doubt if help forums for Windows are any different---and for more TLC, you can always get paid support.

I suspect that OP may have left and we are left talking to ourselves....

Note OP's posting history: 4 posts total--all in this thread. Watch and see if he/she simply disappears into the night.

Frankly, I do not think he/she was abused. It is inevitable when asking how to do something, that people of good faith will try to steer you in another direction. OP is of course free to ignore these inputs.

I doubt if a Windows forum would be any different---and paid support is always available for both Windows and Linux.