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Comment by aesthetics1 | Hacker News Reader

What are the advantages of the MS stack?

I'm familiar with Apache - Where can I learn more about IIS? What are some good C# learning resources? I have been using Safari Books' videos so far. Where can I learn more about Entity Framework?

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Channel 9 (https://channel9.msdn.com/) and Microsoft Virtual Academy (http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/) have a ton of content that might be useful. Here are a couple good intro courses for C# and EF:

https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/en-US/training-cours...

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/deve...

https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Seth-Juarez/An-Introduction-...

If the OP is also going to be using ASP.NET MVC, two additional recommended courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy are:

Introduction to ASP.NET MVC https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/en-US/training-cours...

Implementing Entity Framework with MVC http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/training-courses/impl...

MS Stack Advantages: - Backwards compatible for businesses where that matters (any B2B company tends to need this) - Tends to be easy to integrate with Windows security/domains/etc - C# is a fantastic language, and it's getting better with each release - Has a growing open source environment, check out everything StackExchange has released, and NancyFx for my two favorite examples - Mono means that eventually you'll be able to swap out your server with Linux if you're brave and persistent - Entity Framework and Linq to Sql do a good job of abstracting your database layer - If you're using SQL Server (a pretty good, but expensive, database server) using a MS Stack means you can easily (and fully) enjoy everything it has to offer

IIS is pretty well documented online. Generally I can just google a short english sentence with exactly what I want to do and get it running.

C# Learning resources: What language are you coming from? If Java then just start using PascaleCase instead of camelCase. Then get Jon Skeet's "C# in Depth." If your coming from something else there's half a dozen good intro books (pick any, based on how good you are at picking up new languages). Then still get "C# in Depth."

Entity Framework is pretty straightforward to use...the MSDN docs are great, and the wizard gives you a good intro. Otherwise I'm sure there are books out there. I find experimentation and googling effective.

If you're on a Windows OS (newer than WinME) then you can just enable IIS and start using it on your PC.

  If you have Server 2003 or 2003 R2, you have IIS 6.0.
  If you have Windows Vista or Server 2008, you have IIS 7.0.
  If you have Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2, you have IIS 7.5.
  If you have Windows 8 or Server 2012, you have IIS 8.0.
  If you have Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2, you have IIS 8.5.

You'll have to open firewall ports and do other network things to let internet users get to it, but it's great for local development.

Also check out http://www.iis.net/

I like Wrox books...most of the thick ones on ASP.Net will talk a bit about IIS. You might listen to the .NET Rocks podcasts to get into the overall context.

Julie/Julia Lerman is the resource for all things Entity Framework. Anything authored by her (blogs, books, videos, trainings) will be valuable.

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