You can probably ignore all the tech speak. Arguing about technologies is like arguing about Ford & Chevy. Only the gear-heads really care about whats under the hood.

So far, the biggest complaint I have w/ Subtext (and Wordpress has the same shortcoming in my limited experience), is that developing a good looking theme/skin that is unique to your blog or site takes more time / effort than most people want to put into it (and usually requires CSS mastery).

Great post!! Although, I don’t have enough tech knowlege to fully understand all the stuff you & your commentors are talking about; it’s still good to hear what works best for others. Will you be giving us routine reports on RCG as to how things develop? I’d be interested to read what you have to say so I could possibly setup my own blog(s) later.

SubText is a “product” and not a “host”. So you’ll still have to find somebody to host it (FYI – Parcom.net is a good Windows Web hosting company I’ve had good luck with).

In my case, I already pay for server co-location, so self hosting my own blog made sense.

Ironically, there is a pretty active & growing open source community on the Windows platform. It’s just not as cool or popular as the Linux kids are, but it’s the crowd I hang out with.

I didn’t want to go with WordPress. PHP is like a bad classic ASP flashback (uglier code, better class library, same shortcomings). Also conventional wisdom says PHP doesn’t scale.

I don’t know, running PHP & IIS together is like buying a Mac to run Windows Vista. Just because it can be done, doesn’t mean that’s the way it should be done. Besides, at the end of the day, I’m stubborn C#/ASP.net developer first, blogger second.

PS – Thanks for the kudos.

I always enjoy your post! This one was informative and made me chuckle too. I am using a blog format that you posted on around the end of January at widows live spaces which I want to thank you for because it has worked out good for the cost.

I think that it may be hard for others to post comments so I am once again looking for a host that is still easy to work with and allows links management and other user friendly options. I think I will take a look at your host SubText. Thanks again and I am adding your link today!

FWIW, PHP is like JavaScript, loosely-typed C with a lot of object-like baggage. You could soak it up in half a day, but the extreme lack of rigor/syntax-checking/type-checking might make you nuts. PHP is a prototyping language where, when you’ve finished the prototype, you’re done.

Great site, in any case. I look forward to seeing what comes up in the feed.