First off by putting this in the ASP forum you are automatically biasing this whole topic. More people that do more ASP programming such as Adam look in the ASP forum then PHP people do. I suggest putting a similar topic in the Coding forum.
Second off I suggest going with PHP. Why? It is more stable. Are you running windows? How many errors do you get? I get around literally 50-75 a day. Many times programs need to close for unknown reason, or it just gets really slow because the entire OS was made inefficiently. How does the OS relate to ASP? ASP runs most commonly on Windows Server and is made by Microsoft. The same exact people. Now you're probably never been on Linux but compared to a Windows OS it is absolutely perfect. No unexpected crashes, etc.
Second off look at the ASP forum post/topic counts and compare it to the PHP forum. The PHP forum has way more than ASP and more than any other coding forum in Webmaster-talk. PHP is more popular because it is free, stable, has more functions than ASP, and besides that more web based software supports PHP. For example pretty much ALL forum software only supports PHP. Just to name a few IPB, Vbulliten (forum software webmaster-talk uses), SMF, phpBB, etc. And people offer tons of free PHP web based software for you to learn off and use.
As you get into big corporations you will see ASP is more common. But as you get to the absolutely huge sites/corporations such as Myspace, 1and1, Yahoo, etc. You will notice they don't use either PHP or ASP and if they are they're probably hiding it.
Both PHP and ASP aren't supposed to be for ridiculously huge sites. They can be but they aren't the best choice for the biggest so if you ever were planning on programming professionally the real answer is neither of them.
Some other things to mention is ASP only from my knoweledge supports Microsoft driven databases. PHP goes as far as to support many Microsoft made databases and more. As well you can use either complete procedural or OOP (Object Oriented Programming) styles in PHP easily and hassle free.

So my final answer is everything. If you want to become a serious programmer you need to learn absolutely every programming language possible. I however do recomend learning them in the following order -
(X)HTML
CSS
JavaScript
PHP
MySQL
ASP
MsSQL
Ruby on Rails
Perl (even though it is a dying language)
Flash
Java (DIFFERENT FROM JAVASCRIPT!!!)
Visual Basics (Extremely easy. Just drag and drop)
C++
C#
Applescript

I hope this helps. Have fun learning.

Heyyyyyy...how come I got singled out there?

Seriously, ASP does also support MySQL through MyODBC and there may be others. Other than that, I agree with pretty much everything there (except maybe the order...gotta put ASP on top just cuz I already know it.

Lol sorry. I didn't mean to. Just haven't gotten very far into ASP at all so I thought it didn't support MySQL. I'm learning more right now though =-). You keep your ASP at the top I'll keep my PHP XD.

No harm, dude. It's one of the problems with ASP, though...a lot of misinformation. Fortunately, it's easy enough to correct.

My thing is over all PHP. As its faster to learn and can integrate with just about all database types with ease.

I also find PHP to be a bit more flexible, and or stable.

Tutorials on ASP vs PHP are quite high, as PHP is free most web sites now a days are done in PHP. So tutorials and learning guides are easy to come by. Not to mention the php.net site is very easy to use. If you don't understand a certain function all it is to find a solution, and support is php.net/(function).

But obviously the biggest minus that more vulnerabilities are open up sence PHP is so popular.

My rough work with ASP has left me little to say about it. Personally don't like the code, and it only works on windows(from my understanding) so its limited. And windows servers are not cheap. (thats all from a newb ASP point of view, as I have very little experience with it.) Although I do like how it handles access better then PHP :P probably because its Microsoft language.

Which is amazing that it works together without problems.

Of course there are problems. Didn't you just say PHP is more stable? Lol not being as stable then a competing language is a big problem. Not enough functions, etc.

Are you running windows? How many errors do you get? I get around literally 50-75 a day. Many times programs need to close for unknown reason,

Something wrong with your hardware I would suggest

I have 3 workstations and two servers running either 2k pro & server and XP Pro, that run 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Reboots are when the AV updates need one (couple of times a month maybe) or when I program a locked loop

Well I really am just asking for it by having PHP, Crimson Editor, 30 tabs in Firefox, sometimes a few in Opera and rarely IE, an MMORPG, Windows Media Player, MSN, What Pulse, Smart FTP, and literally 20 different browser plug ins all at the same time while only having 512 MB memory. Although the 3.2 GHz processor does help =-). Quite disproportionate compared to my memory though. =/ But the point overall is PHP should be your first choice. This doesn't mean never learn ASP. Just make sure you try out PHP first.

good post

I would recommend you that :
If you have development experience of Microsoft related technologies then go for ASP and if you have some experience of C/C++ or Java then go for PHP.

If you got no experience ever, then I would recommend ASP due to easy syntax its having.

I wanna learn ASP, as that opens up more doors. And doesn't restrict myself to certain things. Its on my list of things to learn, but I don't know when i'll get to it. Currently, in the middle of a mix of AJAX and ORACLE.

ASP.Net all day any day...

More Robust and easy to learn if you already know C#, VB, JS and a few other basic languages. I also think ASP.Net has more abilities as far as security.

I'm going to weigh in on this.

I've been programming for over 25 years. I started on Business Basic!!!!!

Personally, I'd go the ASP route AND DO NOT TAKE CLASSES!!!

You could get some really great books out of the library (SAMS is great).

Why ASP and not PHP?

I started in ASP 10 years ago. Even though it's code isn't compatable with ASP.NET (which I'm now learning in C#), it's a nice intro. The structure of applications have been carried over.

Also, ASP is insanely easy. I normally create my pages first here and then transport them in C#. I get what I want first and then I just translate languages.

As for money making, future work....

Right now I'm programming client-side at a MAJOR Fortune 100 company in NYC.

What I noticed is that the server-side wars is coming down to JAVA and ASP.NET. I really think PHP is going to see its day. That's just what I'm seeing.

Why? Because web applications are merging with Desktop applications. My company is investing BIG BUCKS in Adobe FLEX 3.0. Microsoft has also made a similar commitment that I'm incorporating in my freelance work.

Even in my freelance work, most of the stuff I'm coding aren't just public sites but A TON of server side applications.

It's tough and believe me, I like PHP because it works so well with AJAX. But I don't see PHP really being the server side lanuage. I see ASP.NET and Java.

For the PHP people, if they could tell me something different - YAHOO! I LOVE PHP... but I just don't see it getting a foothold in the real application marketplace.

DonnaZ

I don't know about creating a website using ASP versus PHP, but I guide you how to creat website in three main steps given below:
There are three main steps to creating a web site:
1. Get a Domain Name - this page has everything you need to know about domain names - what they are, why you need one, how to choose a good one and how to get one.
2. Choose a Web Host - this page explains what a web host is, how to choose a good one, and what you really need and what you don't so you don't get taken.
3. Creating a Web Site - this page explains how you actually build a website, what you should and should not put on it and helps you figure out which website builder is for you.
Creating a website is just the first step to having a successful website. I will also show you add-ons you can put on your website like newsletters and counters for free or cheap, ways you can make money from your website and how to get traffic to it.

Originally Posted by DonnaZ

What I noticed is that the server-side wars is coming down to JAVA and ASP.NET. I really think PHP is going to see its day. That's just what I'm seeing.

I think a large part of PHP's downfall in the enterprise market is the misconception that it's insecure, full of bugs etc. when the reality is that it's probably about on a par with the other major languages (namely C# / Java / J# etc.).

The other hurdle that PHP must overcome to get a good grip in the enterprise market is the "open source therefore no commercial support" etc. aspect, which is where companies like Zend (unsurprisingly) want to step in.

As a language though, I think PHP is growing to become at least equal with ASP.NET / Java for serious/enterprise applications. Recent features such as improved OO paradigm support and some of the PHP frameworks starting to reach maturity etc. are helping to make it become a more realistic proposition.

I doubt that PHP will die out due to the large number of people that dip their feet in the PHP water - the question is more how much of a presence it can establish (or maintain?) in the corporate marketplace.

You can see that (supposedly) obsolete "languages" (i.e. ASP) continue to be popular, useful, and have commercial presence despite their age and (perhaps) shortcomings. Even though I don't think anybody is ready to call PHP obsolete, you may argue that it has various shortcomings compared to x - but even if that's true, it doesn't mean that everybody will stop using it.

Programming for anyone other than yourself is rarely about using the "latest and greatest" and a lot more about considering the target platform, skill availability, and other related factors. Since PHP is 99% committed to Internet applications it seems unlikely that later versions will become less relevant if you're looking to develop a web-based application of some sort.

Java and .NET both have other markets (e.g. desktop / mobile) to consider which may mean they actually fall behind? Difficult to say, but I see all 3 continuing to enjoy significant shares in the Internet programming world for the foreseeable future (so at least the next 5 minutes :P).