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General Discussion

Posted by James Biddle
James Biddle
3,853 Points

OPINIONS!!

So sitting with developers at work everyone says PHP is dying and any jobs in the future will just be supporting old code. The are c-sharp guys btw. My goal is to be able to travel and freelance after my father passes. Been in IT for years doing citrix and vmware stuff, burnt out.

Should I go updated with Rails/Ruby? Maybe just go for front-end? Looking at Indeed and searching the different languages PHP still seems to have a presence.. but maybe "old code".

Anyone with experience free-lancing your opinion would be appreciated!

3 Answers

Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points
Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points

Hey James, so I can 100% relate.

I've been in local marketing for years, and I've dabbled in HTML/CSS and a BIT of PHP (Mostly hacking WP). I've designed graphics and websites since 2006 but only seriously the last few years, mostly CMS based. I'm currently training myself on Treehouse to be a full stack dev type guy, with front end and back end knowledge.

I work for myself, and I'm currently striving to go full remote freelance (instead of meetings in person) and focus just on programming so that my wife and I can travel semi-full time. (In one of THESE!!)

I can certainly understand why they might say PHP is a dying language, and if it weren't for some major CMS's running on PHP (Like WordPress), I don't know how much faith I'd have in it's future.

However, it's still a great language to know.

If it were me starting out, I'd learn Ruby as a backend language.

However, Treehouse has those amazing "Tracks" that you can join! I'd go through the Web Design track top to bottom and then move on to the Front End Developer track. Once you have design, html, css and JS under your belt, than choose a backend language! (My choice right now is Ruby given how many jobs are looking for Ruby programmers, and it's maturity and level of momentum.)

I hope this helps a bit!! Hope it all works out for you, bud.

  • Mark
James Biddle
James Biddle
3,853 Points

Awesome response, and how weird I was looking at that camper yesterday!!! But that is it for me, hit the road! Just want to be able to jump in and make decent money while on the road. We are both looking that the same future.

I appreciate your comments,

Good luck!!!!!

Jim

Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points
Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points

Awesome! Aren't those Tabs great? We really like the one called the Tab S, since you get an inside kitchen and a bathroom!! All in a teensy tiny lil' guy..Amazing.

I wish you the best. I can tell you from what I've already had refreshed in my mind and new things I've learned, Treehouse is the way to go!

James Biddle
James Biddle
3,853 Points

Check these out, pricey as hell, but awesome.

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points
Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points

Weird indeed....My wife and I have been huge supporters of the tiny house movement for two years now, and we're currently saving to buy a small piece of land, build our tiny house, live mortgage and rent free, and then also buy a Tab to travel in.

Building a tiny house yourself is the way to go....now if only Treehouse would put up a course on that...P.S. Watch Tiny House nation on FYI. Great show.

James Biddle
James Biddle
3,853 Points

Grrrr. Lack of online prices angers me. How much is that tab S estimated at?

Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points
Mark Cuda
Mark Cuda
6,428 Points

I don't want to get the treehouse forum to off topic, feel free to Direct message me on Twitter, I'm @TheCudaFish We can continue our conversation elsewhere!

However! We've seen that a fully loaded model, with the inside kitchen and wetbath, all options, etc are around $17-$20k new, depending on the dealer and their level of greediness ;)

Christian Andersson
Christian Andersson
8,712 Points
Christian Andersson
Christian Andersson
8,712 Points

I'm by no means an expert, but I wouldn't say that php is dying. I've been looking for jobs recently within webdevelopment (front and/or backend) and I'd say something like 70% of all openings I've found require php.

Perhaps procedural php is indeed dying, but MVC-patterned frameworks, such as Laravel or Codeigniter, are extremely popular.

If you ask me, php still has a bright future.

James Biddle
James Biddle
3,853 Points

Thanks for the response!