Dear debian-users,
Yesterday I attended an IBM-conference about IBM's line of VisualAge
products. Great stuff - exactly something that could give Linux an extra
boost. I would like to ask everyone on this list to send IBM an e-mail
(http://www.ibm.com/Assist/ ; if you want to know more about it,
http://www.software.ibm.com/ad/visualage_c++/)
This is what I send them; I encourage you to send the same or similar; by
making our wishes known, we could win ourselves an important ally.
===
I visited your Visual Age-products tour in Amersfoort yesterday (25/3/97). I
was impressed with the ease of use of various products and was wondering
whether it would be possible to make your line of Visual-Age software
available for Linux and other free Unices.
The reasons for asking are manyfold:
- Currently, there is a big gap on the Application Development
side of Linux applications waiting to be filled; all applications
use the GNU compiler; except for one other free compiler, lcc. VisualAge
tools could fill that gap, going beyond the traditional edit-compile-debug
paradigm.
Having such a tool-suite available for Linux will strengthen the position of
Linux, making it a viable alternative to the Microsoft monopoly.
- Linux is rapidly spreading; it can now be considered a serious rival to
other commercial UNIX-flavours, such as SCO.
- Having VisualAge available for Linux, would allow employees of software
companies to use IBM software at home; this would encourage the use of IBM
products at the Office.
- Linux is very popular at universities worldwide; making VisualAge
available for Linux creates a huge potential customerbase for IBM, as well
as create free mouth to mouth advertisement.
- Porting to Linux should be relatively easy, as most of the code generating
parts should be already there:
- class libraries have already been ported to Solaris and AIX,
Linux is similar to those two platforms (POSIX.1 compliant)
- code generation for the i386-family is already there
- Motif for Linux is available at low cost
- Several hardware and software vendors, such as Digital, have
an active interest in Linux. IBM would not be the only major
player in the industry.
===
--
Ronald van Loon ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
"I am waiting as fast as I can! I want patience, and I want it *NOW*!"
- Bethany J. Parkhurst
