I've wondered for a while, what if any, are the advantages of the .NET framework over PHP? I've looked at code snippets for PHP, C#, and ASP and all three seem to be capable of doing the same thing. I never got on this .NET wave, I've never quite understood it. Can someone explain to me what the major differences are, besides the obvious fact that Microsoft is behind .NET and pushing it like crazy? They are all server side scripting languages are they not? They all provide the possibility to create dynamic websites. They all allow you to process queries from several types of databases, they all allow you to read/write files and process all that information.
I'm asking this because I've wondered about .NET for quite a while, but also today I was told by a friend that if you really want to be successful in web design and server side programming you need to learn C#, and the rest of the .NET suite, not PHP. I've already learned PHP, it's an easy language to me now and I'm building on more and more programming concepts with it. If I can do it all with PHP, why would I be interested in learning .NET? I will probably learn it eventually, just to know it and be able to use it if I must.
Is my friend another brainwashed Microsoft junkie, or does he have a point?
I searched around a bit, and found this article -
http://www.oracle.com/technology/pub.../hull_asp.html
It sounds to me like PHP and ASP.NET offer the same thing. And in addition, PHP offers quick bug fixes (open source), free implementation, better security for it's ability to run on Apache instead of IIS. There were some arguments against PHP for not being a true OOP model, but as of PHP5 it fully supports OOP. So I guess the answer to my question is; it's really just up to personal opinion and preference?