>WOW, I hadn't seen that about the SDK. There should be a ROYAL Uprising, But as it appears, no one really gives a $#@@!$#

(Attribution: reply interspersed with comments lifed from http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-06-20-018-20-NW-MS-SW&tbovrmode=3#talkback_area)

I'll bet that no one noticed the "approved hosters" section, i.e. software developed with this license can only be deployed via an approved hoster, the list of which is in visual studio.net. Also, the user of this ms-internet sdk must apply mandatory upgrades within two (2) days. Then to top it all off, you can't even admit that Microsoft has anything at all to do with your development. Talk about the 'man behind the curtin'.



I think many folks are concerned but fear keeps them from testing new waters. It's just like quiting a steady job and becoming a consultant. It scared me when I made the leap, but I soon found the waters comfortable. Some will be successful and some won't, but FEAR will keep many who could have been successful from trying at all. Security inhibits freedom.

Microsoft is realizing now that they can no longer follow innovators into prefabricated markets and then dominate them and force them out. Examples from the past include the point-and-click desktop, the web browser, multimedia player, web portal, etc. Each one of these huge successes for Microsoft were due to plundering markets already made by Apple, Netscape, Real Networks and Yahoo! respectively. The GPL stops this viral activity dead in its tracks.

The .NET stratagy is based on your data being available from any device, anywhere. This is what they mean by MOBILE ... Now to do this, MS needs some way to develop apps to do this, hence this SDK, and approved hosters ... MS is betting people will see value in .NET and this is the way to lock non-MS platforms out.

Not really anti-competitive, you can develop for .NET if you want, for OS really, you just have to use our tools ... Oh we did not port our tools to that OS, well it's comming in the next release, we promise ;-)

Some Microserfers accuse Penquins of being 'Windows bashers' or 'anti-Microsoft' but, like some Penquins towards Linux, they have an almost religious attitude toward MS, and defend it with equal vigor and vitriolic behavior. Some are scared because, it seems to them, that theere would be no carry-over benifit of their present knowledge of programming and networking, which is not true, of course. Those principals are the same regardless of platform, language or network, so fear shouldn't enter into someone's decision to use or not use Linux. It's just another tool.

Linux is rapidly approaching 30% share in the server room, and one copy of a commerical Linux distro can instantiate serveral servers and/or desktops installtions. Also, even though WinXX is bundled with most PCs sold through Dell and other vendors, that doesn't mean that WinXX ends up as the OS on every one of those boxes. So, commerical sales figures don't give a clear picture. Unless there is a LOT of WinXX piracy on corparate PCs, which XP will kill anyway, MS figures tend to be high, and Linux tend to be low.

The recent comment by the Intel executive about the Linux desktop not having 'enough applications' available is a common myth. Valid four or five years ago, such criticisms today reveal how little some folks inform themselves before they make comments that are so obviously dated.

There are over 3,000 applications in 2nd and 3rd versions available right now. OpenSource.org has over 21,000 OpenSource and/or GPL Linux projects registered with over 185,000 coders signed on to develope them. And that's probably not the half of all that is out on the Internet. Besides KOffice and OpenOffice and StarOffice, there are other office suits of various levels of capability, depending on the need. Few people use all the 'features' available in Word or Excel or what ever, any more than they do in StarWord or KWord or GIMP. And then there are several graphical and audio applications on each platform for which there are no counterparts on the other platform. Time changes all of these limitations on both platforms. Increasing some and reducing others.

Another red herring that is often raised is compatibility between Word and, say, StarOffice. Why do they stop there? Why do they not complain about forced incompatibility between Word 2000 and Word 97, for example. Even if they do complain, many sheepishly proceed to shell out more license fee money merely for the priviledge of saving their Word documents in a different format, which is essentially the 'upgrade's' only feature? It is just MS generating cash flow by cycling license fees. If Word 2000 and Word 97 are incomaptible and that doesn't seem to bother them, then why are they bothered about incompatibility between KWord and MS Word? Even StarOffice's ability to save in Word format didn't appease some because an obscure and seldom used feature didn't convert properly.

So, while Linux on the desktop isn't very hot in Business America, it is in Engineering America, Artist America and Niche America, and on most NON-American desktops. As progress on KDE continues at its present and astonishing rate, it won't be long before KDE will meet and exceed the capabilities of Win2K or XP - at least those capabilities that are worthy of immitation, to say nothing of those features that are unique to KDE. KDE is almost there now. Less than a year ago I would have said it would take KDE 2 to 3 years to catch up to WinXX, but the rate of development is breath-taking, and I now I vasilate between 2-3 years and 6 to 12 months. :) Microsoft senses this too, that is why their new EULA's have restrictions in them that attempt to tell the coder what he can and can't package with software that is written by him.

With the appearance of a commercial tool like Kylix, Linux is set to become a consultant's dream. Imagine you are trying to offer your services to a putative client and besides your fees you must include server and workstation licenses, 3rd party DB licenses and all associated upgrade costs, for both you and your client. A competitor counters your proposal with one that includes the free software and installation for the 10 servers and 150 workstations, and the DB software, and the total bill is for development costs only, since the copy of Linux was thrown in as a freebie. Let's say your time is billed at $50/hr for 2,000 hours (one year - big project)= $100,000. If your competitor bills at the same rate and uses Delphi, for example, the client still has to add the server and workstation and DB backend software into the mix, which could add $50,000 to $100,000 to the total.

Far fetched? Consultants are already doing this today with Linux and C++ tools. Adding Kylix to the toolkit will only help.

BTW, even Microsoft uses GNU apps:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/interix/features.asp

Among other things, the Internet Toolkit SDK is fighting against GPL incursions onto the WinXX platform by tools such as found here:
http://www.mingw.org

In fact, I think this is the real target of MS's criticism of the GPL and Linux because, as I pointed out above, MS already uses FreeBSD and GNU apps, but they want to prevent others from doing what MS does.


>I don't think its going to be Postgresql,. It just doesnt make sense, as they already package it with their dist. Interbase ? Repackaged Addbs... ? Will be interesting whatever they do.

My curiosity is very peaked! Will they write their own from scratch or build on a GPL DB? Since RH likes to borrow from the MS business model my guess is that they will (have?) purchased a propriatary backend and upgraded it to integrate seamlessly with their RH "DB Edition" (just guessing, I don't know if that version of RH exists or not :). Businesses will go with it because they are used to paying using the MS business model, providing RH doesn't price themselves into MS's ball park.
JLK