Hi Greg,

I can't speak for how the licensing for MySQL works - just that from life experience - nothing is really free...

When I was looking for a hosting company for my site and a few others, most of them offered MSSQL and MySQL. Neither were free.

Al


>>If you're going to be running 25 to 300 sites, I don't think MSDE will be the answer...
>>
>
>Agreed... Lack of built in management tools is a big problem too.
>
>>Most companies that offer shared hosting also offer dedicated or semi-dedicated hosting services - and I don't think the prices differ that much between MySQL and SQL Server.
>
>
>Are you sure about that?
>
>Most companies I know don't pay anything for just using MySQL and are under the impression (maybe wrong) that there are no license fees required for MySQL unless you plan to distribute/sell MySQL for profit in a vertical type envrionment.
>
>In other words if you plan to sell a commercial product that uses backend MySQL then you would pay license fees because you are actually selling a commercial product. If you just use the MySQL product and don't sell commercial derivitives or setups then you can use the free licenses.
>
>I believe that is why 95% of hosting companies throw in MySQL for free but you pay more for hosting contracts with MS SQL. I'm not sure how all these hosting companies could offer free MySQL with $7.99/mo hosting packages if they were paying the same for MySQL licenses as you do for MS SQL. In fact most hosting companies I know don't charge anything extra for MySQL and ALL hosting companies I know charge extra for MS SQL.
>
>This thread is a bit ironic for me. Just a few days ago a guy was in my office arguing we me that our company should use MySQL instead of MS SQL for our accounting systems. I explained that AccPac Pro Series supports Oracle, DB2, and MS SQL... Not MySQL. His answer... you need to find a better accounting system that is 'up with the times'. I asked him to name a few enterprise accounting systems that use MySQL. He couldn't name one!!!
>
>One thing is for sure, no matter which DB I use for any project someone is going to question the judgement. :)
>
>>
>>And by the way, DotNetNuke 3 does do friendly URL's.
>>
>>>
>>
>>Shared hosting would not work for this solution. There are already over 25 websites up and running and there will be over 300 once all are up. Most likely the sites will be spread across 10 or more servers when all are complete.
>>>
>>>I do prefer MS SQL over MySQL but these sites will likely be low income for the first few years and we want to keep costs low starting out. I'm starting to consider using the MS SQL light (MSDE?) though if I'm going to use DOT NET NUKE.
>>>
>>>Currently I've been playing with E107 and Mambo for content management as I already have the MySQL database in place. But they are in PHP and while I know it... I can't stand it.
>>>
>>>There is also a bigger problem with most CMS's in that they don't do friendly URL's except under Apache. So I don't write my own CMS or use DotNetNuke I could end up with PHP, MySQL, and Apache solution which is pretty much my worst nightmare. :)
>>>
>>>Does anyone have any experience with Rainbow Portal in .NET?
>>>
>>>Greg
>>>
>>>>Just curious - why MySQL? I believe you can purchase a MySQL Provider for DotNetNuke - but out of the box, only SQL Server is supported - and SQL Server fits the bill for me. There are a number of excellent hosting companies that offer ASP.NET/SQL Server shared hosting packages.
>>>>
>>>>>Thanks! That was exactly what I was looking for!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>>Does anyone know of open source CMS (content management systems) for ASP.NET??? What I'm really looking for is something like PHP-Nuke but written in ASP.NET or ASP that will run on IIS. I would still want to use MySQL for the database backend.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Thanks.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Greg
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Greg,
>>>>>>This might be of help:
>>>>>>www.dotnetnukes.com
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Oops.
>>>>>>www.dotnetnuke.com
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Extra s still gets you to a related site:)
>>>>>>Cetin