>>Let's see what happened if Linux controls most of the Server/Desktop OS arena.
>
>Allow me take my Microsoft hat for a moment and replace it with my ex-Unix sysadmin/geek hat: that is not going to happen anytime soon. On the server side, you still have to be a geek to get this stuff to work. OTOH, I could toss a Windows 2000 Server disk at my AOL-using sister, and she could get it up and running in an afternoon.

> And the Russian crackers will own it by that evening. :-)
BTW, server statistics for Aprial are at http://www.netcraft.com/survey

> Desktop? Umm, yeah, right. I can barely set this stuff up, let alone Aunt Mable.

mmm...come on, Mike, you're not that stupid. And, things have changed drastically since you've been away. I placed SuSE 7.1 CD2 into my CDROM drive and powered up. I answered a few questions and a few minutes later I was presented with the KDE2 desktop. I had to rebooted only once. The SuSE Server Options are just as easy. Microsoft isn't any easier. I'm running W2K here at work and it took MS Certified Tech people an afternoon plus countless reboots to get this thing running (I would have done it myself but dept policy prevails). There were hardware incompatibilities that required they replace a CDROM, and there were software incompatibilies.


>
>And before you dismiss me as a Microsoft shill, let me say that I want Linux to succeed.

There is no crime in supporting the company you work for. You'd be a sorry employee if you didn't! I want Linux to succede too! :-)

>Got to keep Microsoft's feet to the fire and all, you know.

And reduce their strangle hold on the Dekstop? :-) You are right, though, everyone will benefit from a Microsoft that hsa true competition. Microsoft products were getting bloated and buggy because they had no competition. The bloat was caused by feature creep needed to justify upgrade fees (no one would willingly pay just to have bugs fixed), and the bugs were because people had no viable alternatives, i.e., Microsoft had no viable competition.

>But as I see it, it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Depends on your definition of 'anytime soon.' You may be suprised. The speed with which development on the kernel and KDE scene are taking place is astounding. A benifit of the 'Bizzar'.

I began dual booting Linux & Win95 in the fall of 1997. Linux wasn't even on the radar screen then. I deleted Windows from my PC on January of 2000, runing Linux exclusively. Linux was just coming out of the 'grass' on that radar screen. This March I used the same copy of SuSE 7.1 on both my PCs, legally. Here at work we installed SuSE 6.4 with the ReiserFS journaling system. It took a $39 copy of SuSE 6.4, from BestBuy, one afternoon and three scripts (two bash and one python), each less than a page long, to replace the Wildcat BBS. We moved the 450MHz PC the Wildcat required into production and took an old P200 with 64MB and two 1GHz drives to setup our new BBS. It has been runnning since last September without a single crash, or unscheduled downtime. The employee who runs it doesn't know how to run 'Linux'. She says KDE 'works just like Windows but doesn't crash', meaning that both KDE and Linux are stable. She also noticed that it runs faster than the Windows+BBS combination did on the 450MHz PC. We can legally take that same copy of SuSE 6.4 and put it on the other 300+ workstations here, and the way Microsoft licensing schemes are running we may. This is what is scaring Microsoft.

If 'anytime' soon is within three years that may be a possibility. But, as we both know, three years in this business is an eternity. With the StarBridge computer finally hitting government circles both Windows and Linux may be ancient history in three years, except for legacy apps.


>And deep down, I'm a big fan of Unix (how many of you were on the FP Unix beta? :-)

Don't have the slightest idea of what you are talking about. I never knew of the Unix community until I loaded RH 5.2 on my PC, and it if doesn't deal with Linux I don't care. You have my curiosity though... what does "FP" stand for?

>
>>Linux Delphi a.k.a. Kylix is very impressive.
>
>No argument there.

As an old Pascal programmer I agree. Being able to use CLX with both Delphi6+ and Kylix to write code that will compile on both Windows and Linux without changing a byte will be a very nice feature, especially writing to an Oracle backend, which is platform independent. Of course, SQL Server was formly Sybase and it wouldn't take long for Microsoft to create a viable SQL Server for the Linux community.

The GPL, the same thing that is scaring Microsoft, could also scare Borland. But, Borland is releasing a free version of Kylix for creating GPL software only. That may be the crucial difference between them and Corel, for example, who used the propriatary model to sell Linux software and has not succeded.
Personally, I don't think Kylix will succeed against KDevelop and Glade for the same reason Netscape couldn't succeed against IE -- IE was free. I've also mentioned a technical problem concerning VB/VFP experience translating to a product that uses a strongly typed language which is OOP with a fengence. The learning curve will be similar to moving to C#, if not steeper.

Good luck in your Microsoft endevors! I appreciate your contributions to the vFP community.