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Technology Stocks : INPR - Inprise to Borland (BORL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Big Dog who wrote (3842)	12/24/1999 2:05:00 PM
From: Big Dog	Respond to of 5102

API = Money Machine by: krazilec 12/23/1999 6:43 pm EST Msg: 25508 of 25609 API is the application programmers interface, basically when you open a file, or draw something to the screen you are calling the API of the OS or GUI to do the job. MS have always owned the API's, so they could do stuff in Windows that no-one else could and did often with their office products. When MS wanted to kill an API (as they did with Win16 which legally they could not protect) they deprecate it forcing everyone to now write to the new API. Basically the API is the key to doing anything on a computer, and MS OWNS and GUARDS the windows API, and Linus has set up the linux API so it could NOT be OWNED. But if someone writes a series of Objects that abstract the OS and GUI API's then developers write to that, then THAT entity owns the interface. In 94 when Borland build an Object interface called OWL that did just that, then ported it to OS/2 and threatened to do it to Novells Appware and the MAC, Gates wrote the 'Kill Phillipe' email calling on all employees to leave no stone unturned to squash Borland. Borland was at $80, and employee bonuses were tied to negative changes in the BORL share price. Right now both Delphi and CBuilder use an object library called VCL which works with Windows only. They must port it to Linux OS and GUI. At that point all a developer needs to do is write to VCL and their app will work on Linux or Windows equally. Now when MS tries to change the underlying API for the IA64 version of Windows (as they will do) it does not affect developers as Borland will have simply changed VCL to talk to it as well. In the end INPR has the chance to own the toll booth for both Linux and Windows. Talk to a developer you trust and ask about this, I'm sure you'll be happily surprised.

To: Big Dog who wrote (3842)	12/24/1999 2:19:00 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5102

1.) Linux will become the dominant OS in 2000. Linux has a promising future; however, the idea that it would become "dominant" in 2000 is absurd, and this kind of thinking is what drives the wild stock price fluctuations we've seen of late. Corporate users are still lacking any serious committment to Linux; substantial applications for Linux are still unavailable; I'm not sure business users are even very interested in upgrading to W2K, let alone tackling the transition from Windows to Linux. Home users are really after the gee-whiz stuff in W98, and aren't ABOUT to move to Linux in large numbers until they can see some of the MM crap they're accustomed to. Bottom line: The Linux user base is concentrated today amongst hobbiests and commercial developers who haven't really started to develop for the platform in serious numbers (no tools, remember?) At best, by the end of 2000 we'll start to see some corporate defections in small but noticable numbers. More likely, sometime in 2001 or beyond. The transition from Windows to Linux is not like moving from W95 to W98 or W3.x to NT. They are just different kinds of moves, and are not going to be taken that lightly. As I have espoused here in years past, these changes just don't happen this quickly. Java is a perfect example; three years ago you had people asserting that Java would replace ALL OTHER LANGUAGES (or environments, whatever<g>) within 18 months. People BELIEVED that crap! Java has come along, but there is still certainly a great deal of c++, COBOL, & other development going on. It could easily be 5-7 years before RHAT show significant profits (assuming Linux isn't taken away from them by someone else before the market develops--who knows, it could even be MSFT). I recommend everyone just sit back, take a couple of deep breaths, and let cool heads prevail...