Zend clearly has underplayed the extent of the shift that has taken place concerning the future of PHP. While this version of PHP does provide a much better object model and added features, is this the beginning of the end of PHP as the choice of web scripting language for the open-source community and developers not under the employ of corporations? Will the average developer still be using PHP five years from now, or will the usefulness of PHP be limited to companies who can afford to shell out thousands of dollars for all of the necessary software that may be required to make PHP a viable option for development (along with the purchase of products from Sun, Macromedia, Oracle, Borland and others)?
While today this is still speculation, the evidence and tone lends credence to the thought that with the success of PHP, built on the backs of developers worldwide, the near future of it may include an alienation of it from those who energized it at its genesis, propelling it to the corporate enterprise status that those in control of PHP are seeking today. No matter what actually happens, developers should be aware of the major developments with PHP beyond the surface level function additions and new object model. Companies and developers who are employing PHP 5 for large-scale applications today at a reasonably low price may be in for a surprise in the next few years, if operating PHP at full capacity involves the purchase of additional, expensive software.
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