On Wednesday 06 June 2007, Vivek Puri wrote:
Now there's another catch there. Its far easier to upgrade the PHP/Apache than OS. Lets see: 1 ) Most people manage their servers remotely even people who pay for dedicated servers. So upgrading PHP means if it goes wrong I am still logged on to my server and can revert back. If I upgrade my OS and it goes wrong I am stuck and it goes out of my control as most people cant install OS remotely. 2 ) Most production server will be Ok with upgrading PHP/Apache as its still application than upgrading the OS. You can always have php4 & php5 installed on same machine. 3 ) RHEL5/CentOS5 have recently been launched and there are issue with stability. So most people will wait till its stabilized before upgrading. So as I understand new servers may use RHEL5/CentOS5 older servers are in no rush to upgrade.
Now even if RHEL5 becomes prominent platform we are again stuck with PHP 5.1 , while we are planning to target PHP 5.2 .
So Jonathan is right that we are moving at pace of RedHat. Although I am in full favor of move to php 5.2 soon but hosting companies, which rely on "yum update" for maintaining their servers, wont come on board esily.
OS upgrades aren't really a concern for us. We're just interested in the PHP version. Although Red Hat's latest version ships 5.1.6 by default, that version apparently had some nasty bugs anyway from what I have heard. I think the most telling data, though, is this: http://www.nexen.net/chiffres_cles/phpversion/16987-php_stats_evolution_for_... See the last chart especially. A month ago, 5.2 was already within spitting distance of surpassing 5.1 installations, and 5.1 is in slight decline. By next February, at that rate it should have a healthy chunk of the market already, even without us pushing. Not enough that we could abandon PHP 4 without pushing, but enough that it's a safe target, I believe. -- Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42 larry@garfieldtech.com ICQ: 6817012 "If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas Jefferson