When it comes to coding, there have been raging debates about whether or not PHP is superior to .NET technologies. Web developers rarely switch from one technology to another because they have their own fixed notions as to which technology is better.

However, there’s no doubt that one area in which PHP developers have lost out on is the IDE. With the superb software tools and features found on Visual Studio, software like Eclipse and their PHP plugins are no match.

The WYSIWYG editors for PHP have been a bit lacking in features as well and while it’s true that there are many such editors, none of them are awesome enough to wipe out the others.

However, PHP editors got a huge break in 2008 with the introduction of Microsoft Expression Web 2.0 which provided built in support for PHP coding as well. PHP developers can now utilize advanced GUI features such as drag and drop, on the spot data connectivity, along with sophistication CSS validation.

In 2009, Microsoft Expression Web 3.0 was released with new support for viewing in multiple browsers as well as improved facilities for developing media rich applications such as flash.

If you’re just starting a web application development business, you might be thinking – “Great. But tools like that are from Microsoft and they’re too expensive to my nascent firm.” Well, there’s good news. That used to be true, but you can now get all the software you need from Microsoft for free!

Here’s how it works. As part of Microsoft’s WebsiteSpark program, as a small development firm you don’t have to pay anything for Microsoft’s development tools for three years. And beyond that, there’s no commitment after paying the one time fee of 0. Surely it doesn’t get better than that!

In order to be eligible for this offer, you need to have a firm with less than ten employees and must associate with a Network partner – in order to get genuine and full featured Microsoft software such as Visual Studio, Expression Studio, SQL Server Database software, and even a copy of Windows Server 2008.

As a new business, this will really give your operations a boost as you make use of the productivity tools for PHP that will allow you to get that extra bit out of your designers and coders.

With this offer, PHP coders can rejoice as they get fully supported Enterprise class software at no cost. One of the best programs from Microsoft!

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