On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Chad Walstrom wrote: > So, I disagree that Linux is taking off JUST because of pre-compiled GNU > tools. Did someone say that it was? It wasn't me. > I believe Linux is taking off for a number of reasons: > > * The Price is Right -- Can't beat free Solaris is also free: http://www2.sun.de/dc/forms/reg_us_2211_391.jsp I just ordered one the other day. They wrote back to tell me that it should be arriving soon. > * Advanced packaging tools (Sun's is a bit behind the curve on this > one.) > * Public, central, network-accessible package archives (Sun's > aren't exactly public.) > * Convenient search tools for querying the plethora of packages And also, there is a great mass of software all ready to run on Linux and it is easy to compile it on Linux. For me this is very important. > No, I think one of the reasons Solaris isn't as popular amongst desktop > consumers is because until recently, they didn't have an x86 product. They had it back in the 90s for sure, but I don't think they were giving it away until recently. Mike