I just finished migrating a customer of mine into a Dotnetnuke site.  Using all my favourite Ventrian modules, I was able to make a pretty decent site.  Because they are a high-profile dealer for SeaRay Boats it is important that their website reflect this high profile.  There is still a bit of work to do, but the website was recently subjected to a Critique by a consulting company hired by SeaRay.  They really could not find any major shortcomings, but they recommend that PHP be used instead of ASP.  Here is what they said:

"The ASP language that the site is coded in can be sluggish and ASP limits the type of webserver your site can be hosted on if you ever need to switch hosts.  If you are considering a rebuild for your site down the road I would recommend having it coded in PHP which is much more universal and flexible for hosting options."

A statement like this does not seem to me to be something a hired consultant should bring up.  The end result is much more important than language it is written on and if he did a bit of research he might actually realize that a CMS is being employed.  I don't see ASP dying off any time soon, but he is right about the sluggish performance.  I turned on the Whitespace filter and it is more perky now.  Is this sluggish feeling inherent in ASP or is it a Dotnetnuke phenomenum?  Do other CMS platforms/frameworks suffer the same way? 

I do everything in DNN now no matter the size, I am just so comfortable with it.  Does anybody have any thoughts or comments?

The site is www.hurstmarina.com.

Mike

Nice looking site.

Sounds like your consultant has a personal agenda to me.

Have a look at yslow, as well as being a great tool, it will give you live feedback, some good pointers on optimisation and perhaps a set of measurables you can show you customer.  Your site current gets a low rating, but that is common for any DNN app before optimisation.

You might want to have a look at a DNN optimization component such as Pageblaster to squeeze a bit more out of your site.

PHP to be used instead of ASP :) nonsense ....

Thank you for the tip.  YSlow looks like a great tool, I will get that going today.

Mike

Hidden in my brian someplace a was nugget of trivia that www.searay.com is an asp site.  So I checked and it still is, albiet classic ASP.  So I think now I have good ammunition to present.  Perhaps the consultant should investigate his employer a bit before slamming.

Mike

This would totally tick me off. I've been making sites since 1994 and have been programming asp since 1999 and asp.net since it came out. The company that critiqued you wants to take your client away from you. While most client's can't understand the technical details of different types of programming here are some points you can use:

ASP.NET is backed by Microsoft, one of the largest for profit companies in the world. Microsoft is legally responsible for ASP.Net if something is wrong with it. It is in their interest to fix anything that is wrong quickly. If something is wrong with PHP and it causes your business to lose money, there is no one that can be blamed or held legally responsbile. PHP is only fixed when someone has time to fix a bug in it. While the track record has been good in the past, the economy is getting bad, more programmers will be out of work and will be too busy looking for jobs to work on open source projects. ASP.net is also modern technology. PHP is based on technology that is 30 years old. ASP.Net is also designed fromt he ground up for business. PHP is more of an academic project. Microsoft has a lot more information that can help you out.

I think the only thing you will have to explain to your client is that using ASP.Net means that Microsoft is ultimately responsible for it. Using PHP means that ultimately no one is responsible for it.

For those still interested in this thread, here is my response to my client.  In my response I mention SeaRay, SeaRay is the company that hired the consultant and they have a nice ASP site and they use Lightbox photos just like Property Agent does.  There is more I could have said, but I was already long winded.

-----------------------

 Thank you for providing me with the website critique.  I am very happy
with the comments as it shows that we have been very successful in
delivering a classy functional site for Hurst Marina.  Most of the
points have been addressed already.  One of their main issues is
regarding the Flash header on the homepage, I will send a price
quotation for developing this enhancement.  There was also a comment
made regarding the choice of platform being sluggish.  I have made a
setting change that has resulted in noticeable speed gain.  This
platform is very flexible and more performance gains are likely
possible.

In doing some research, the platform I am developing on is doing
extremely well and may actually be regaining ground on PHP.  Here is
an article that establishes that ASP is by far the top choice for the
top-1000 corps. http://www.port80software.com/about/press/060105.

I can easily find hundreds of articles that support my platform
choice.  I could just easily find hundreds of articles condemning ASP
but most of these opinions are biased against Microsoft technologies
in general.  A perfect example of a top corporation that continues to
use ASP is SeaRay themselves.  SeaRay has obviously invested a huge
amount effort and money into their site and I would bet they are very
proud of it.

Perhaps the company that has provided the critique of my platform
choice is also a design house that only knows PHP, but that is no
reason to slam a leading-edge platform that has a huge market share.
The capabilities of the framework and resulting site is of much
greater importance than the language used to write it.

There are very few hosting companies that do not support Windows
hosting.  I can't even find any that don't and should you ever need to
find a new host, moving the site is not a huge job.