I think they had to make a descision: Either against Microsoft or with them. They chose to go with Microsoft so they now have to do everything that supports M$ OSes and avoid everything that could drive users to open source. In both ways there is no guaranty for success: If they try to compete with Microsoft they have a strong enemy and if they collaborate with them they can go down with them if open source becomes stronger and stronger.
IMO, they had made a very wrong decision. Supporting open source doesn't always mean to open source everything. Besides, by supporting open source, they could also support M$ as well. Supporting open source doesn't mean against M$. Most of open source projects come with cross-platform support in mind, including M$. Even Apple indirectly supports M$ (Safari, iTunes, etc). Nobody denies that M$ still dominates the market. So, supporting open source should be the safest choice for them. If M$ grows bigger, they can grow bigger with M$. If M$ goes down, they can still grow bigger with other platforms (linux, mac, etc).
IMO, RemObjects realize this. That's why their Oxygene/Prism could work on .Net (M$) and Mono (non M$). Also that's why their other OP-based products starting to support FPC and Lazarus (to target non M$ platforms). RO is smarter than CodeGear/Embarcadero, obviously. ;)
-Bee- _______________________________________________ fpc-pascal maillist - fpc-pascal@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo/fpc-pascal
