OT: Linux popularity

No, it may not be. China seems to us in the west so far away. Microsoft has tried to release it's code under NDAs so that you can audit it. But with millions of lines of code and paranoid fear it will be leakes the solution does not work.

They are in a trap. All they have now is a patent fight. I doubt that will work, but thay have a war chest like no other.

They better get started fast, because a patent fight might hurt Linix but not as much as they want. There are already billions invested in Linux world over, and MS will hurt all those billions of dollars. They have a voice as well.

Well a word document is proprietary, but who cares ... that is why MS will loose that battle.

But A SolidWorks or a CATIA format still has pulling power with little ability to reverse engineer. And when it happens, all that is required is create a new version and encript it.

Word is backward compatible, they have to be. My 2003 word ocument has to open in Word 2000 at least. I can save my Word 2003 documents in Word6 or WordPerfect. I cannot save my Solidworks 2005 in SW 2004.

Don't worry gates has even verbalised it that Linux is a threat now. It is obvious that Linux is keeping them honest. They are soon about to release an update to Explorer to regane some ground lost with Firfox. But they will be copying all the latest developments.

You have to look forward with SolidWorks. It may not make sence now but strategic moves need to be done early. And maybe going Linux with SolidWorks is a stupid move. I just don't know, I would like it but that is not business thinking

I feel that OSs will become irelevant soon. I think you will not know if you are running Linux or XP. It's just like skinnable MP3 players. Pick a skin and who knows what your running, thay all play MP3.

Giorgis

Just go to Walmart, or your purchasing department.

Also check out this. The qestion and answer session for the announcement. Apparently posed to MS:

It doesn't look like much is behind the announcement. Pretty much an excuse to get headlines.

These "Linux" file servers work great with windows (well, at they did anyhow. I haven't tried it since Windows went away from the SMB method). The Samba servers speak in the windows language. To a windows box, it's just about like talking to another windows box.

Red Hat and Mandrake both have a Samba setup so easy it's crazy!

I would also switch to Linux if there was decent affordable CAD for it, such as SW.

I keep Windurrs mainly just because of CAD....that's it. There seems to be tons of apps (often free) for almost everything else. Linux is awesome.

Has any>There is one major contributing factor to the unpopularity of linux on the