In a message dated 7/14/2004 7:35:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time, olson@CS.ODU.EDU writes: I'm not clear on why people would flock to it, but then I've never understood the consumer market that well. I think Linux is fine the way it's going. Which as I see it, is were the people who are working on it or paying to have it worked on want it to go. When I think Linux I think of the whole range of purposes being worked towards, NOS, Application Servers, EmbeddedOS, RTOS (Not saying it's there yet, just thats it's being worked towards). The good news for your vision is there are those who want to it to become the new Windows (Linspire, CodeWeavers, and Transgaming come to mind). If people keep funding or working towards those goals it'll probably get there. I didn't mean to get on such a rant, but I felt a rather generous group of people were being disparaged. Therein may lie the real future for Linux or *nix type OS. Many companies such as Oracle, and I think Sun and others are/were pushing that you, in fact, don't even install programs, drivers, etc. on a personal Computer but use the Internet for all your program executions, file storage, printing, and so on and so on. A few years ago I was watching a special on TV where an executive of Oracle and I believe one from Sun Microsystems were esposing that exact philosophy. In this environment OS like Linux would be the leader for sure. In that same special someone from Microsoft actually admitted that the "personal" Computer as we know it would become obsolete and we would have "terminals" and everything would be done on the internet. Of course the other big thing for these *nix OS is huge servers within a large corporation, etc. There is no denying that they are far more stable and I would think faster than a GUI OS, as we know them Randy Abernathy 4626 Old Stilesboro Road NW Acworth, GA 30101-4066 Phone / Fax: 770-974-5295 Cell: 678-772-4113 E-mail: Cnc002@aol.com I furnish technical support, repair, and other related services for your industrial woodworking machinery. My background as Senior Service Engineer for the SCMI Group for nearly fifteen years with factory training, combines with my extensive background in electronics, mechanics, pneumatics, electrical and CNC machinery to offer you needed support for your machinery. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu