Is it possible to install ASP on Linux Ubuntu Hardy?

Question

I have recently purchased a VPS from Slicehost with Ubuntu Hardy installed. Is it possible to set up the server to work with ASP? I have no idea if this is possible, but if it is, does anyone have any good tutorials?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The answer is a big "it depends".

Are you talking about Classic ASP?
Sun has (had?) a product out called "SunOne ASP" - though the product changed names so many times I couldn't say what it really is other than the original ChiliSoft ASP product bought and re-named by Sun.

Anyway, the aforementioned product would allow you to run ClassicASP/VBScript code on a *nix server, and for the most part would run it well. It was a little fussier about certain things, and there were certain things that didn't work quite right, but if you were hell-bent on doing it you could make it work. Having said all that, I think I read somewhere that the project was discontinued. So it may not be available anymore.

There's also an Apache:ASP module that (in my experience) only works with code written with it in mind. If you're trying to port an application from a Windows server, its one of those "split your risk" options.

Are you talking about ASP.NET?
If this is the case, you've got a better chance... the aforementioned Mono Project would be your best bet. Its come a long way since I last looked at it, but having not had to set anything up with it I really can't speak to how good/bad it is.

All things being equal...
All things being equal, I would really say that if you're going to use an MS programming language, run it on an MS server. It may cost a little extra, but it will probably save you more headaches in the long run.

Answer 2

The Mono Project has some information on this topic. You can either run ASP with Mono under Apache or XSP, a dedicated (but rather limited HTTP server) for hosting ASP.Net on Linux.

You find the information in this article.

EDIT: It seems this question is about classic ASP. Afaik there is no way to run this on Linux/Unix.

Answer 3

AnonJr is right that if you are doing .Net or Microsoft development and deployment then better to be on Microsoft platform. if you are a startup then microsoft has a program - "BizSpark" - http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ you can get dev and deployment licenses virtually free for 3 years as long as you are less then a million $ startup. you can get more details from the above link