CI and SQL Server from Linux

[eluser]dimas[/eluser]
Hi,

I'm actually developing a CI app in my developer machine with Windows and XAMPP, using de sqlsrv driver to connect to the MS SQL Server 2008 database.

But the final server machine is an Ubuntu server, and trying to run the app from there doesn't work because of the sqlsrv driver not installed in the server.

I tried the mssql driver and the app starts to load but it ends with SQL queries errors (SQL queries previously tested and working).

What do you recommend me?
Is it possible to connect from Linux/PHP/CI to SQL Server 2008? If there is a way, will it be as fast as running on Windows?
Is it better to create a new Windows server?

Thx