>I have been using VFP and Fox for quite some number of years, try 5-7. In the past I have also written C with embedded SQL, in UNIX Solaris, as an attempt to find other tools to serve my customers, in writing applications and also PERL.
>Most recently, I would like to get into the Unix/Linux more seriously and I got a pentium 1 with 2gig and 64MB ram at home that I would like to convert into my UNIX/LINUX server, and keep the other pentium 3, 128MB and 20gig as the windows machine and interconnect both, to start developing web based applications with JavaScript, PHP, PERL? and MySQL on a UNIX/LINUX platform.
>
>Will this be a good strategy to get into also getting to write in JAVA for developing web based applications?
>Can I be pointed into the right direction?
>What should I use instead if none mentioned is good?
>Please help, and as always I appreciate all responses.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Tony Fernandez

Tony,

It sounds like you've got a good grip on getting started with Linux development. I think your hardware will be fine...Linux is much much more "robust" than Windows and should perform acceptably on the Pentium 1 (although if you begin working in X-windows you may start wanting more horsepower).

My personal preference is PHP+MySQL, and throw in some Java too. PHP is so easy to get comfortable with that you'll have plenty of time to work on Java. As you probably know, Java is useful for interface things that PHP doesn't do. You might also want to look at PostgreSQL. I'm not sure, but I've gotten the impression that MySQL has some concurrency issues that PostgreSQL has already addressed. I may be wrong on this though.

An additional area of opportunity to consider...
You might want to keep an eye out for new technology that permits communication and data updating of PDAs and portable communication devices (cell phones). I think that is going to become a huge development opportunity in the next year as people want to begin taking advantage of the Inet to keep them up to date. Recently I've had several of my clients asking how they can use their cell phones to notify them of meetings that their secretary has scheduled or changed. What surprised me is that these same clients were asking "what's the internet?" just a year ago.

Hope this helps.

Mike Copeland
Genesis Group Software