Losing market share with PHP 4

It looks like PHP 4 is still going strong as a worried Clay Loveless write on his blog. Ivo Jansch have an older article, PHP 5 adoption – a summary, on the subject. It is true that the PHP 5 uptake has been slow. Many internet service providers as well as many developers are reluctant to switch. This is probably, as others have stated, a circular dependency. When lots of popular open source applications still only work with PHP 4, ISP:s are reluctant to upgrade. As ISP:s are reluctant to upgrade the popular open source projects are hesitant to upgrade. I still think the wrong people are worried. Still PHP 5 is increasing it’s share and finally the day will come when version 4 will be considered legacy. Hopefully before PHP 6 is here but not necessarily.

PHP 5 is not all about objects as some developers seem to think. New features in the language itself as well as modern frameworks like Zend Framework written completely in PHP 5 makes it easier and faster to produce quality software. Even though people – surprisingly – think that todays situation is set in stone and that things never will change they will. Popular open source applications written in PHP 4 will be overrun by new fresh applications that fully make use of all the new features. These applications are developed faster with better quality. If the service providers do not upgrade they will soon not be able to attract new customers. Eventually they will even start losing customers.

So if open source projects want to stay competetive, the project leaders – if any – would do good in thinking hard on switching before it is too late. The ISP:s would also do good in planning ahead. The new fresh applications of tomorrow (and today) won’t work on their servers. If they want the new customers they need to adopt PHP 5 soon. I think that the early adopters, that struggle today, may soon be the winners.