[K6BW] Food for thought

[Bill Smith]

A little off-topic, but this is an interesting perspective from a software
programmer.  He is discussing what he sees in the near future for computers.
He leads by describing a number of database software development packages,
then explains why.  Clearly, the iPhone and similar devices have had an
impact!

On my shelf I have Foxpro 2.5 ( the DOS one ) and Visual Foxpro 3 and
5 among several boxes with VB, Visual Studio, Delphi, Visual Dbase...

If I don't use them ( anymore ) is because I think that today they are
useless.

For me ( only my personal point of view ) the desktop we have known in
the last 10 years is at the end.

With oil at 100$ a PC that need a 500W power supply, 2GB of RAM and
200GB of HD to run Vista and IE7 is a bad waste of energy. This kind
of hardware will probably land in our living-room to watch TV, DVDs
and play MP3 but my business users are demanding me energy and space
saving hardware, WEB, mobility and platform neutrality because they
want their apps and data wherever they are with whatever they have:
M$, Linux, MacOSX desktops, SmartPhones, PDA, notebooks connected at
the hotel's lan...

If I wanted to follow M$ I would use Visual Studio, if I wanted to
follow Borland I would use Delphi, if I still use Harbour is because I
think that it is still useful and easier to learn and deploy.

Clearly this is not a general rule and can't be true for everyone but
it's my bet.


73 de Bill, AB6MT
hbco2 at sbcglobal.net