Steven T. Hatton wrote:

Zentra,

You say that people tend to migrate over to Linux based applications. I have noticed that Mathematica and WordPerfect are available for Linux. I don't know how well they are selling. I'm expect that it is a bit of a social deviance to use software that you actually buy in the Linux community.

If you look hard enough, you can get free apps for linux to do most things. Also much of the software you describe, is available to non- commercial users for free.

the other hand, if Linux were to become as easy to use as 95/NT for the uninitiated, and Linux were capable of running software that people already have invested money in, there would likely be a mass migration from M$ OSs to Linux.

Well Linux is getting there. Look at KDE. It's not quite perfected, but getting there fast. And as far as command line use goes, linux is way easier to do things. The biggest drawback to windows is the lack of a 32 bit command line and language. I thought OS2 was way better than win95, just for having REXX. It still is a great single user system. Windows NT is really a waste unless you use the NTFS filesystem. I played with NT4 for awhile, and it isn't any easier than linux. In fact it is harder, because everything is hidden from you in dlls. The biggest drawback to win95-NT is the price. To set up winNT with Linux functionality and security, costs about $1000 !!! The NT Server license, plus Visual Basic, plus Visual C++, is way out of the reach of average people. Whereas SuSe is $50, Perl is free, and it has it's own compiler. Plus the source code is open to look at. I have a big distrust of corporate motives. I wouldn't want to trust the entire planets computer network to a profit seeking organization, who hides their code. Linux should be what is taught in schools, it is affordable to all students.

As far as running standard Win32 software on intel platforms goes, there is no need for emulating the CPU as is done with a Sparc. All that needs to be done is to emulate the Win32 API. I am not a stellar programmer, so that "all" could be a lot more than I am making it sound like. The main reason that I bring this up is not to dismiss the programming effort required, but to observe that the intel based Win32 programs should perform at least as well under Linux as under M$ OSs.

Well you should look at the comp.emulators.wine ( I think that's right) newsgroup. They discuss the nuts and bolts of it. You are right. These guys see light at the end of the tunnel, so they are working hard. BUT.... there are so many little incompatibilities that pop up, principally due to Microsoft's habit of just patching up old code to make it work. That makes it very hard for "intelligent, methodical, programmers" to make a consistent emulation scheme. They just patch things up as they come. All in all, when it comes down to really getting daily computer work done, there is nothing better than the command line, with pipes and re-direction; and a powerful language like PERL. So we are talking about 2 different types of users. The web-surfers, and chat-room lovers, and people who want to print an occaisional T-shirt up on their ink-jet printer; comprise one group. They are always complaining about about system crashes, and lockups, and are willing to spend alot of money to "buy their way into computer functionality". Microsoft can make a bundle off of this group. This group would love to get win32's going on linux. It would make it easier to get the new "linux status-symbol" going for them. This isn't a huge market really. Then there are the real business computer professionals. These people need to connect, manage databases, print reports, make backups, and have systems which don't crash, and are understandable to configure to their special needs. Command line unix or linux is the best choice. I think the real shame in all of this is the lost educational opportunity we are missing with young kids in school. They could start learning Perl and unix command line stuff in 6th grade. You could use old 386's. Not with windows....gotta have Pentium II MMX's, etc., etc., etc. So the school boards can't afford it, and the kids can't afford it at home either. Get me drunk, and talking about this stuff.... I'll talk your ears off. :-) Gotta stop. zentara -- To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e