How to start a local Server on Windows Platform?

Is the cost of windows server license really a factor for choosing a web platform for a startup?

• With the cost of windows server licence being a few hundred dollars per machine is it really a factor if you are using an OSS database such as MySql or Redis and you are paying far more for hardware and developer salary?

• Answer:

  It certainly can be. If you plan on deploying many servers, the licensing fees can add up quite quickly to a significant number. If you have heavy reliance on DB, then MS SQL 2008 Enterprise costs are quite substantial. Windows programmers too are inherently slightly more expensive. Compare all this to say open-source. If you know that you will not have to pay for Apache's licensing fees (as there is none), that's an instant saving. You don't necessarily have to use Apache, you can opt for Nginx or say Lighttpd as your server. MySQL is free (so far) and can be clustered, etc. for more power. Not to mention the Ope-source developers out there are quite many, and you can gauge this by doing a job posting or outsourcing. For example, you will find more companies that specialize in LAMP based server administration vs Windows, for a very low monthly fees. This goes to show that people are using LAMP more as web servers, especially small start-ups and small businesses, as they have created a demand for server administration and hence all these companies have sprung up. However, having said all this, I think there are many more important factors to consider, speed of development (Rapid Application Development), local resources, domain knowledge in understanding Open-source vs Windows, et. al., functionality vs. performance, etc. Like I said, it certainly can be an important factor to tilt towards open-source keeping the costs in mind.