>It is IMO a very interesting issue. I suppose we'd need some numbers here. For example, Microsoft has, what, 40,000 +/- employees? How many of these are programmers? I wouldn't have a clue but I know there are a lot of support folks. Let's say 10,000? High or low do you think?

I think thats low. 15,000 seems to jump into my mind for some reason, I must have read that somewhere (or am just remembering something completely un related).

>The next couple of years will be interesting I'd think. <g>

Defintatley. Whats one thing of many things that holds a platform back? Apps available directly affects its adoption rate.

Once again, Microsoft speeds this up by submitting their CLI and C# to the ECMA. With the chance of a cross platform VS.NET on the horizon and the Delphi/Kylyx combo, the applications available for Linux should start to make apps less of an argument.