[DUG] Turbo Delphi

[Paul Eggleton]

James Sugrue wrote on Thursday, 10 August 2006 12:04 p.m.:
> It's fairly easy to blame Borland for the Kylix implementation five
> years after the fact. A lot has happened in the Linux world since
> then. 

True, but I think it's important to recognise why it didn't work out. I
don't believe it's for the reasons that are usually given ("open source
zealots prefer GCC").

> At the time of release most Linux developers (probably still 
> are I guess) were complete zealots and used GCC and Emacs and 
> would never have paid for an IDE. 

But those people will never convert. The target market has to be
commercial developers who are already building Windows applications and
want to make them cross platform - but Kylix was not really very good
for that because it was difficult and therefore expensive for a
developer to port existing VCL applications, and developers of new
applications would have struggled with the limitations of CLX. If it was
much easier, and there was a business advantage (eg. reduced platform
licensing costs) in providing a Linux version then I'm sure many
companies would be interested.

> I still think Linux is way over hyped, particularly on the 
> Business Desktop.  

Personally I'd say it's not hyped enough, or at least not in the right
way. I have found that many of the people who criticize Linux either
have not used it recently or haven't even tried it seriously at all.
That's not to say Linux is perfect, but in my opinion it has already
reached a stage where it is usable for many desktop users. Surely if
Linux is to make any further headway on the desktop it *will* be on the
business desktop, because that's the place where administrators take
care of setting up the system and solving any technical issues.

Cheers,
Paul

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Paul Eggleton                  Ph:    +64-9-4154790
Software Developer             Fax:   +64-9-4154791
CJN Technologies Ltd.          DDI:   +64-9-4154795
http://www.cjntech.co.nz       Email: paule at cjntech.co.nz
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