>SNIP
>>
>>The other option is the ibm approach, where you have these AS400 computers which have software that only run on them, and IBM gets away with charging $600 for a sh*tty $30 cd-rom drive and developers get to charge $200/hour for writing rpg apps that take 10 times longer than using a rad platform.
>>
>maybe the Linux people are saying about MS exactly what you say about IBM. If so, is their take wrong?

Hi Jim,

Their take is absolutely right imo. If they don't like the product, they should choose other products. The linux camp's motto has always been that they have alternative products that are free. Let them use these free products then if they object to using commercial products.

I can't comment on the quality of the linux-compatible alternatives to anything out there as I don't use them and have no interest in investing my time in learning about them.

As a developer and businessman, I have to decide what would be profitable for me and what isn't. If others have made choices or have opinions different from mine, I respect them; they're also businesspeople and their interest, as mine, is to be profitable. Don't mean to sound like a farengi, but that's really what most decisions boil down to.

All I can say is that I think it's wrong to make a decision just because you hate a particular vendor.

During the past couple of weeks, as I was doing forensic work on a project that was developed under an IBM platform (and was doomed), I had to learn all I could about the platform in order to make a sound recommendation, and I personally couldn't find a single advantage that would make that platform advisable. Otherwise, believe me, I'd be touting the wonderful things that an as400 could do. As things are, I didn't find any.

Alex