>>>>3. My Foxpro applications will be installed on server and they shud be able >>to run it..
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>>>This cannot be done, because VFP will not run on a Linux machine. Virtually >none of the programs you're used to use won't run on Linux.
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>>I have to disagree. If the Linux box is used as a server and is allowing file access to DOS/Windows based files, then VFP apps can be installed on the Linux server and run from it.
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>>It's no different than putting a VFP .EXE on an NT server and launching it from the [NT] network drive. The VFP application will always run on the client, whether it was launched from a local drive or a network drive (NT or Linux).
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>>Guy
>
>But you can't run Web Connect or any other VFP server on the Linux server.
This is exactly the key point. Win32 can access files residing on a server with the porper network protocols installed and an appropriate client, pretty much regardless of the underlying operating system or file system of the server - whether the server is another Win32 peer station, a Win32-based server, a netWare server, a ?nix server, LANMananger. The operating system of the server doesn't matter a bit as long as the Win32 station has the needed protocols and client to make the shared file system available to it using the standard protocols - it doesn't matter what goes on under the hood of the server as long as the file system of shared resource is properly virtualized and made visible.
A Linux server cannot run native VFP code any more than a NetWare server, or an OS/2 Warp server, or a Banyen VINES server, which all can use Intel compatible hardware but use an operating system that can't execute Win32 applications. Obviously, servers can be running on hardware that's completely incompatible with the x86 architecture, which couldn't ever run VFP code because the machine isn't Intel opcode compatible, but the file system of the server, given the right protocols and client, could be accessed from a Win32 compatible station.
IOW, if the file system is shared and the right drivers are in place on the Win32 client, and the necessary access rights are given, it doesn't matter what operating system is being run at the server as far as accessing the files residing there from a Win32 platform station. Being able to access files on a server from a Win32 station doesn't imply that the server is capable of running a Win32 application. And that's the difference here between a box running NT Server vs running Linux; the NT Server could actually execute the VFP program (within limits; NT doesn't have to run on an Wintel processor, so an Alpha-based or MIPS-based NT box might not be able to run the VFP-based app, either, even though the underlying operating system is NT.)
