On: Nginx just became the most used web server among the top 1000 websites

[Osiris]

IIS configurations are stored in web.config and other XML files that are easily editable.

[nahname → Osiris]

Nothing easy about editing a couple thousand line xml file. Especially when it's on the server and you have to do it with notepad.

[GFischer → nahname]

It being on the server precludes opening an IDE?

That said, I agree that it would be better if it isn't a thousand lines, and maybe there are better options than XML.

The company I work for is a Microsoft shop (for now, switching to Java sadly), and I've edited a lot of web.configs in servers, sometimes using Notepad, and it wasn't much of a hassle (though I did have to research what to edit beforehand in some cases).

[thirsteh → GFischer]

You have IDEs installed on your production servers...?

[Osiris → nahname]

My comment was refuting the parent's comment that IIS needed a GUI because it used the Windows Registry to store configuration information.

[nawitus → nahname]

Which is why IIS has a GUI tool to do it, and with .NET you can edit the configuration with a few lines of code.

[lmm → Osiris]

Yes, because the registry is terrible. If the registry were any good, IIS configuration would use it, and you'd be able to programmatically reconfigure IIS, or any other program, in a standard registry-based way.