"phil hunt" wrote in message
. ..
On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 23:23:52 +0100, Keith Willshaw
wrote:

Erm no

We are a multinational who write MANY software packages.
But feel free to browse the web for commercial software developed
for Linux and compare that developed for Windows.

There's a lot less for Linux. But Linux's market share is growing
anyway. Why? Because commercial software is getting less important,
and open source software more important.


Oh come on , what percentage of PC users even own a C++
compiler let lone know how to use it ?

For an increasing number of application spheres -- note I'm not
claiming for everything -- open source is the best solution for the
job. Web servers being a good example.


I'll grant you that for server aplications UNIX is clearly superior

If that's the state of your logic, I hope they don't employ you as
a programmer! BTW, the last car I owned was made by an American
company; this proves that no companies outside the USA manufacture
motor vehicles.

I am only commenting on the reality of our customers
preferences, personally I prefer Unix but the reality is
most end users dont,

Have most end users even used Linux?

No, which is rather the point.

I contend that for many tasks
-- examples being browsing the web, reading email and Usenet, doing
word processing, Linux-based systems do the job perfectly well,

But they lack the market share

without the issues of cost, insecurity and vendor lock-in associated
with Microsoft.

Dell had it as an option on their
PC's for a a while, they dropped it from the Desktop range
due to lack of interest

Indeed. I'm not saying Linux will conquer the desktop tomorrow.
It'll make headway on servers first, and in middle-income countries
(those that are rich enough to have lots of computers, but poor
enough that the cost of MS Windows and Office is problematic). It'll
also make headway in cultures where localisation is a problem and MS
don't have adequate solutions with local fonts, translations etc.


Microsoft have at least as good a selection of foreign fonts
and character sets as any implementation of Unix I've seen


Then it'll make big headway in the office in western countries.
Microsoft is likely to hold onto the games market longer than
anywhere else.


Actually thats where third party software is most succesful

If I knew I'd be investing in it not talking about it, that said
governments have a poor track record in forecasting IT
developments.

But it's easier to predict the future if you make it.


Its even easier to go bust ignoring what your customers
demand, we can sell em Unix versions tomorrow, we
still support it for existing customers and they are on the
price book but I dont expect to sell any.

Keith