Milan Babuskov wrote:

>And yes, he is right. It is a way to kill Linux. But, no Microsoft
>activity is needed for that, people who port their high-quality
>applications to Windows are killing Linux. If one could run Apache,
>PHP, Mozilla, Firebird, The Gimp, Gaim only on Linux, people might
>have given up Windows already. There is an excellent article about
>killing Linux here:
>
>http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2004/12/how-to-kill-open-source-on-desktop.html
>

None of these apps is without counterpart in Windows, and most of them
are give away by M$ or are free anyway.

Apache - IIS
PHP - ASP
Mozilla, Firebird - IE, Opera
The Gimp - a lot of low cost products, mostly a lot better.
Gaim - MSN, AOL-IM, ...

Though in most cases the Linux apps have an edge, it is not enough to make people want to switch.
It's the operating system per se that is a lot more attractive in server apps, and could become so also on the desktop, as it is free (as in freedom: no DRM, no activations, no strange licences allowing vendors to access tour PC), highly configurable an inherently more secure.

In this light high-quality apps ported to Windows can help people
convert slowly to Linux.
Once every app you use in Windows is available in Linux switching is a
lot easier.
Gio

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Giovanni Premuda - SoftWerk sas
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