Chet;

I think the next step for Microsoft to take is to allow us to go to the church of their choice or no church at all if that is their preference. First, we had better confer with the Microsoft attorneys to be sure our religion is the same as Microsoft’s.

Microsoft does not seem to be interested in selling product as opposed to controlling how their products are used.

This is the answer from Microsoft we have been waiting for. We control the Horizontal and the Vertical… We are “Outer Limits” oh excuse me, Microsoft!

At least this gives Microsoft’s legal staff something important to do. Whil should be very honored that Microsoft has seen fit to warn him. Such an honor indeed! Would running applications created with Microsoft Development Tools detract from “profits” at Microsoft or “vision”? Perhaps it is beneath the dignity of Microsoft to consider one or more of its products running on an operating system that they do not own.

Why don’t we start a campaign to have Microsoft buy Linux? What the heck! Then they will have it all!

Tom


>FYI:
>
>I attended the BAADD (Bay Area Association of Database Developers) VFP sig
>meeting Wed. evening. It was to be something very special since Whil
>Hentzen was coming in to talk to us about developing with the Fox under
>Linux.
>
>Whil made some very good points about the growth of Linux and the fact that
>it soon will be a very viable solution for the desktop for people who don't
>(or can't afford) microsoft's extortionate policies, practices and prices.
>I'd have to agree. I had very few and very minor problems installing a version
>on one of the machines on my network. The Red Hat 8.0 install comes with
>a complete office suite, email clients and servers, web server, samba
>network file service, etc, etc. You can download the images for free and
>try it out.
>
>The most interesting point Whil made was that there was a group of people
>who really knows database applications (us) who could fit right into the
>Linux world if we got VFP running under it. They don't need the apps now
>but soon and there's no other viable 4GL language for Linux and Windows on
>the near horizon.
>
>But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Whil got a call this
>afternoon from a semi-highly placed person from M$ who warned him that he
>would be in violation of the EULA for VFP if he demonstrated (or ran) VFP on
>a Linux OS. that he might run into some trouble from their huge stable of
>lawyers. There has been some discussion of letting M$ know how we feel
>about this attack on our potential livelihood. I intend to do just that.
>
>M$ won't market it for Windows applications, even those for which it's the
>best tool. Now M$ won't let us run it on any other OS, especially the one
>that's going to kick their butts. They are so interested in owning everyone's
>desktop that don't they see that in this way they could sell a whole lot of
>VFP stuff to other programmers and make some money out of it. But then,
>they think they'll make a lot more money the way they're doing it now.
>
>Chet Gardiner
>www.chetgardiner.com