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Strategies & Market Trends : Roger's 1998 Short Picks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Roger A. Babb who wrote (1428)	1/24/1998 2:08:00 PM
From: Allan F	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18691

Roger, As a software engineer I will try to field this answer. At work we often dicuss in great detail why we hate DOS, Windows, and MSFT, and will Linux finally be the end of it. First, there are companies providing Linux for a profit, Caldera and Red Hat are two of the biggest. Over the past 4 years Linux has matured to the point where it is feasible for a intermediate skilled user to install and administor his own network. There are two things left in the equation: big company endorsement and office productivity tools. Fortune 500 companies want to be able to call somebody at 3:00AM and tell them to, "get over here and fix your software" It allows a scape-goat for the IT managers. Though the Linux distributors offer technical support, it will be awhile before it is to the point where someone can use them as a scape-goat. In fact it may take a whole new set of distributors as the idea is quite anethem to the founding of Linux. The productivity tools are the toughie. IMO, the best bet is JAVA. If all software can be sold as platform independent, Windows is much less compelling. The other option is waiting for companies to get good product written for Linux. MSFT clearly does not have an interest in this happening, and unless it is broken-up by the gov(IMO the best thing that could happen, but also the least likely), it may take a while. There are office apps out there they are just not on par with Office '97. It will take time. Unix as an OS has about a 10 year head start on Windows. Conversely Office '97 has a 10 year head start on any Unix equivalent. FWIW, not sure if this applies in the least to investing, but I happen to be a proud Linux apologist and couldn't resist the oppurtunity. -Allan

To: Roger A. Babb who wrote (1428)	1/24/1998 2:34:00 PM
From: clochard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18691

Linux is ideal for a large company because it lets them tailor an operating system and application software release level to their needs and then to incrementally upgrade it as needs arise, instead of waiting years for the next Windows release and the administration hell that it brings. There is no registry to screw the administrator up like Windows has. Allan didn't mention Applixware, an MS Office equivalent product. It may not have all the bloated features that Office has, but who needs them anyway. Microsoft must sell new "products" every year to make money, whether they serve a purpose or not. Linux, being a "free" effort, doesn't have this constraint.