Post #68,408
12/12/02 2:24:16 PM
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(And by "fan", I mean PAYING CUSTOMER!)
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Post #68,413
12/12/02 2:45:03 PM
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By "they", you mean Borland?
Interesting to see whether Micros~1, by buying Borland, would run up against Antitrust problems by owning the sole means of developing products for the Micros~1 "platofrm"....
(But I must remember, this is the Bush "administration", where Duh never met a Trust he didn't like...)
jb4
"They lead. They don't manage. The carrot always wins over the stick. Ask your horse. You can lead your horse to water, but you can't manage him to drink."
Richard Kerr, United Technologies Corporation, 1990
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Post #68,415
12/12/02 3:20:29 PM
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IMO, buying Borland would be a formality.
After all, they already bought most of their developers...
<ducks>
"...the middle of fighting a war against religious extremism is not the time to do something offensive to God." - Some idiot.
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Post #68,431
12/12/02 4:02:41 PM
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Yup. Why would MS spend the money?
They need an independent Borland to (attempt to) show that Windows has a living ISV development environment. Just like they need an independent Apple to (attempt to) show that they don't control the desktop.
I don't expect MS to buy Borland. Maybe invest (more) in them, but not buy them.
I don't know anything about Rational, but I don't really expect MS to get in a bidding war with IBM.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #68,438
12/12/02 4:12:25 PM
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Yeah, that looks about right.
Microsoft buys up some Borland shares, installs more MS-friendly director.
Borland ceases development on Kylix.
Microsoft sells shares of Borland.
I seem to remember them doing something like that to some other company, was that Corel?
"...the middle of fighting a war against religious extremism is not the time to do something offensive to God." - Some idiot.
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Post #68,441
12/12/02 4:20:58 PM
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There is only one reason I can think of. (Conrad, plz note).
There are legions of VB developers (and I mean of all levels - but mostly I'm talking about the "I know VB and that's all" types). Many more of them are disenchanted w/what VB has become and will become in the future. To date, these guys have been unable to make an easy transition to Linux (a brain-dead cat can code VB). Kylix, (although I've only barely installed it) is a simple enough tool for a VB hack to start making Linux desktop apps very, very quickly. If MS buys Borland, they can kill off Kylix before it becomes widely adopted. And from my cursory review of it, I believe it could well be the graphical dev tool that begins the migration of VB goobs to Linux.
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Post #68,448
12/12/02 4:31:16 PM
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That's the slogan they used at the intro of K1, two yrs ago.
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Post #68,628
12/13/02 10:52:11 AM
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So where can I get this Kylix?
Cost?
I need to become more than "just a VB guy" right now, since my 18 years of mainframe knowledge and experience are getting rusty.
lincoln
"Four score and seven years ago, I had a better sig"
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Post #68,641
12/13/02 11:26:27 AM
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So all my zealotry through the years totally passed you by??
From [link|http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_kylix.html|http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_kylix.html] . (Not that it would have been all that hard to find, starting from Borland's front page...)
Cost varies -- the Open version above is free for the download (as is the Enterprise trial on the same page, but that's only for 30/60/90? days).
Otherwise, the [link|http://www.borland.com/kylix/professional/index.html|Professional] version is a mere $250 to a new user, while the [link|http://www.borland.com/kylix/enterprise/index.html|Enterprise] version costs two grand when you aren't upgrading from any previous version (if [link|http://shop.borland.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry16?SP=10024&PN=29&xid=39696&V1=30011519&V2=30011519&V3=1&V4=38&V5=0&S1=&S2=&S3=&S4=&S5=&DSP=0&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=0|this link to the Borland shop] doesn't work, just click "Buy Now" from the above-mentioned pages).
If I understand correctly, the [link|http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeclx/|FreeCLX] libraries on SourceForge were supposed to include the database-related stuff that's missing from the Open edition, to bring it up to the level of Professional... But I could be wrong, and it *does* look a bit old... So I don't know for sure. Anyway, if you're tight for money, try the Open Edition first; if that feels good, $250 isn't really all that much for a REALLY *great* IDE/compiler, is it? (Dropped it from $400 a while ago, ISTR -- frankly, it's just an incredible deal, IMO!)
Christian R. Conrad
Mechanisation
As our souls are slowly stolen
The wheels of progress keep steamrolling
Mechanisation melts our minds
To drive the furnace that drives us blind. -- [link|http://www.vergenet.net/~conrad/poetry/mechanisation.html|© Conrad Parker, 1993]
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Post #68,419
12/12/02 3:30:05 PM
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Well, Conrad, Looks like I WON'T BE LEARNING KYLIX!
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Post #68,422
12/12/02 3:35:29 PM
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Hey, it's FAAAR from a "done deal!", yet... So go ahead!
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Post #68,430
12/12/02 3:59:54 PM
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Yabut
how long do you think Kylix will last if the deal goes through? Five nanoseconds or six?
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Post #68,446
12/12/02 4:28:36 PM
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So? Either FP/Lazarus is done by then, or...
...if FreePascal and *some* "clone-variant" of the VCL class library aren't quite ready yet, just go on using *your existing* copy of Kylix a while longer. I don't think they'll be legally able to revoke your license, yaknow...
And *if* FP/Lazarus (or FP/FreeCLX or FP/Jedi-VCL or whatever) *doesn't* materialize in five years (or whatever; say two or three years after the last release), and you really *are* forced to abandon Kylix for good... Then you've had five years (or whatever) of glorious use of Kylix, so you've still got a heck of a great deal.
Christian R. Conrad
Mechanisation
As our souls are slowly stolen
The wheels of progress keep steamrolling
Mechanisation melts our minds
To drive the furnace that drives us blind. -- [link|http://www.vergenet.net/~conrad/poetry/mechanisation.html|© Conrad Parker, 1993]
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Post #68,460
12/12/02 5:14:25 PM
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There's no zealot like an old zealot :-)
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Post #68,468
12/12/02 5:47:32 PM
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Zealot? Hey, I thought he was just an old Galilean beggar...
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Post #68,442
12/12/02 4:21:17 PM
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Maybe this is M$'s intent.
Just by this wild speculation, maybe all those developers who were considering sampling the Kylixir Of Life will instead turn to M$'s poison, if they believe they'll have no choice somewhere down the track anyway.
John. Busy lad.
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