>Hi Jerry,
>
>>
>>Of the many options let me recommend PostgreSQL. It is very similar to Oracle in many ways, but easier to install and pretty much tunes itself.
>>
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>That's the way I'm leaning too. Do you know of any accurate surveys that indicate the level of interest a typical IT deparment (is there such a thing?) has in Linux?

Only what I read around the web...and there is so much number jockying going on only God knows the truth.

Well, considering that IIS/n internet servers experienced a 6% drop at the same time Apache & Linux showed a 6% increase this month (Latest Netcraft survey) there seems to be a lot of movement. Some think it is a reaction to the Lincese 6 program. I don't know. Where I work used to be a 100% MS shop and my use of Linux was the brunt of jokes and ridicule. That has all changed now, due to Lincense 6 and XP's instrusiveness. The head of the IT dept got a copy of my Mandrake 8.2 CDs and has his own Linux dekstop in his office, He watched as I attached my Mandrake 8.2 system to the LAN. He was suprised to find out that connecting to the LAN with Linux wasn't much different than using WinXX.We have some Linux servers in production now. Using a copy of my Mandrake 8.2 boxed set he has set up three PCs with Mandrake for his kids at home and one for his wife, who is an attorney. She needed a reliable email for her home office and her MS exchange setup was getting hammered, even with the latest viri. He got tired of disinfecting and/or reinstalling and keeping the latest vacines and security patches going, so he put up a Linux firewall. (It's not impossible to keep a clean WinXX OS, it's just difficult.) Then he dropped the firewall and put her stuff on Linux using xiamin's exchange clone.

The state of Nebraska had a $300 Million tax shortfall during the last year. The last thing they need to do is to pay 30-300% more for licenses to run what they already have, especially when the new License rquires a tax on each computer no matter what OS it runs. So, we aren't going XP or .NET. We are going to platform independence. Linux is a way to do that.