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go easy on me
You're making that *really* difficult by insulting such a kick-arse OS.
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4GL
From kcore, 1GL=binary, 2GL=assembly, 3GL=C etcetera, 4GL=visual basic/visual C++ etcetera. Am I right?
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Also, customer's databases grow to several terabytes so an open source database can not handle this.
erm... yes they can... CASA, the Civil Air Safety ppl use linux for their databases and I'm willing to bet that they're databases are bigger than your databases. But then again I guess you wouldnt know any different if you had
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no experience with Linux.
and all the evidence you had to base your arguments on was Windows FUD.
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They got there in a dodgy way and they have been delivering dodgy programs ever since.
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putting huge amounts of people at work.
So if I sell you a car that doesnt work its ok because Im working yeah? Cool now Im going to sell little kids heroin and then tell everyone - "its OK! Im actually helping our economy by hiring runners and dealers!"
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Linux will then become a big player.
Linux _is_ a big player, we own 60% of all web servers last time I checked bucko. The _only_ area we we dont have a sizable market foothold is the desktop arena and we're better there too. Why? Because we're BETTER.
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Will it remain free
Ok heres the deal-you actually read
www.gnu.org at some point so you know what you're talking about, *then* you come back.
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Do you think there would be a governing institute safeguarding the stability of Linux
What you mean like Linus approving or rejecting new inclusions in the kernel code? Already happens.
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I have 10 people in my team at work, programming on the same program. I know how hard it is to keep the lot stable. And that's just 10 people, in the same room
Too many cooks? My thought is that it only works when all the programmers nominate an approver/rejecter. Otherwise everyone adds their favorite spice to the stew and you end up with a very spicy stew. If linux is so unstable then ask yourself why the Stock Market computers run a gnu/linux software / hewlett packard hardware combo? Ask why the first post about the new Mozilla build asks people to "_try_ and crash it" instead of Internet Explorers standard "ok so we kinda crash every few hours." If linux is so unstable then why do I have a debian package containing a program whos *only* task is to constantly stress test a system and _try_ to crash it? Linux is stable. Linux is _VERY_ stable. Read the cathedral and the bazaar by Eric S Raymond to find out why Linux is so stable.
And you _can_ get paid for developing Free software (note the capital.) I happily paid $25 for my Debian CDs. I happily paid $10 for my slackware CD. I bought them through
www.everythinglinux.com because I _want_ to support Linux. My belief is that people actually want to support good products, and will only not pay if its not worth the money - which is why everyone pirates windows rather than pay for it. I also have _WELL_ over $1000 of music cds sitting on my bench. Thats a lot of money of cds. How did I find out what CDs to get, what bands I like? By downloading MP3 samplers from P2P networks. Advertising good products and warning about bad products is what Free products and pirated products achieve. If you still dont believe me then look at Red Hat Linux. They make MILLIONS and they make Free software. Millions may not be much compared to Microsofts Billions, but Microsoft owns 90% of the market and Red Hat owns what, less than 1%? When you look at it in terms of profit/expenditure ratios linux makes much more commercial sense. and you can profit *without* shafting the customer.
I hope you dont take that as a flame... I would be interested in hearing your response. Try that linux distro on a desktop. Just give it a _try_ at the least. Any one linux user here would gladly help you if you had any linux problems, they helped me with mine.
However please keep just one thing in mind -
_LINUX IS BETTER_
Hope you have fun exploring the world of GNU, whether your work does or not.