Adam Clarke wrote:

>In my world there are a growing number of admins who do not have Windows
>machines, they actively shun products which even appear to favour that
>platorm. Despite what you would suspect from the more vocal members of
>the non-windows crowd this is not a political position. It is a reflex
>carefully honed by repeated dissapointments with shoddy Windows software
>badly re-implemented on their platorm of choice. It is a "bad smell -
>stay away" kind of thing.
>
>

Again, the important piece is the back end. The protocol is open, and
anyone can do a front end. The classes build, transmit, receive, and
parse the XML will all be part of the project, anyone with a burning
desire to punish himself/herself with the sorry excuses our industry has
for GUIs is welcome to make a front end. For me, life is to short for
sectarian GUI and platform battles.

>Given that an open source product tends to build it's popularity from
>grass roots activity (i.e. small time developers and consultant
>administratiors) solving problems for personal and small business needs,
>I wanted to make it clear that a platform specific GUI utility will make
>a negative impression on a significant and growing number of potential
>users.
>
>

Last time I looked, Linux about about 0.5% of desktops world wide. We
certainly don't want to do anything to offend this giant segment of the
industry, which is why the protocol is host independent and open.


--

Jim Starkey
Netfrastructure, Inc.
978 526-1376