Re: Kylix once more - imo bad product policy


"Roland" <ich@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:478e5b5b$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
IMO it is a shame that Borland/Codegear does not try to keep on
supporting/selling Kylix! It should not be too much effort.
As a suggestion: Borland shareholders and developers could profit from
their investments - be it financial or intellectual - if you develop
something like a CLX for QT Designer? I know this would not work - but I
cannot believe that a company makes such an investment (developing Kylix)
and then not at least leting it run on live maintenance.

I fully agree. Dropping Kylix would represent a great waste of the money
already invested in the product. In deciding whether to continue developing
and selling Kylix, the accountants should not just look at the
revenue/development-cost ratio of Kylix taken in isolation, but at the
composite revenue/development-cost ratio for Delphi for Win32, Delphi for
Linux (Kylix) and Delphi for .Net combined. The ability to write platform
independent programs in Delphi that are relatively easily portable across
all the current major operating environments would give Delphi a definite
edge over single platform development products for Windows or Linux.
Therefore the availability of and continued vendor commitment to the Linux
and .Net versions should translate into increased sales of the Win32 version
as well. Without the advantage of the possibility of cross-platform
development, there is frankly not much incentive to prefer Delphi to a
mainstream Microsoft offering.

Moreover, the objective of maintaining updated versions of Delphi for
multiple platforms should keep the Delphi development team focussed on
keeping the language and libraries as platform-independent as possible, and
less beholden to MS. This can only be good for the language, and should
minimise the cost of developing updates for all three platforms. It should
also be good for the software development tools industry, as the continued
existence of a credible competitor to MS for Win32 and .Net products should
help keep prices competitive.

As more and more software is moved from the desktop to the web, there will
be an increasing demand for:
a) web applications that can be developed on Win32 workstations but
recompiled to run on Linux servers without any change to the source code -
hence the need for a Delphi to Linux compiler
b) web applications that be downloaded from a web server to a client
computer or uploaded from a development computer to a web server where
either computer may be running any of the major operating systems (including
Mac OS) - hence the need for a run-anywhere version such as .Net, that can
cross computer boundaries without stumbling at security barriers
c) Distributed client-server applications that may safely interoperate
across increasingly rigid security barriers - another reason for .Net.

Although my main interest is in Win32 desktop applications, I feel the need
for Linux and .Net web applications too. For Borland accountants to
concentrate solely on Win32, seems to me to be truly short-sighted.




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: CrossKylix discontinued
    ... These is a very weak evidence or logic. ... No other Company can sell Delphi IDE with 100% delphi compatible ... Kylix don't have VCL ... versions) to linux. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Why blame Borland?
    ... I had the same experience with Suse 8.1 Linux and Kylix 2. ... and made possible to create possibilities for other companies like Borland ... Whatever, we liked Delphi because was good, the top w32 dev language. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Why VCL for .NET?
    ... I was shocked when I learned that we have a Delphi for Linux but its name is ... explain what Kylix is do. ... > most of the enthusiasm for a Linux development environment was from Delphi ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Codegear in the news
    ... it's not an all/nothing thing when it comes to .NET and Linux support. ... If you're interested in reading about my Kylix ... CodeGear will follow the .NET direction, as the Delphi Community ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Wild speculations about the "other" factors
    ... see Delphi for Linux targeted at the Linux Server-side population? ... which is probably one of the reasons that Kylix didn't make enough ... If Borland expected the Open Source community to suddenly all fall in love ... Linux is a very reliable commonly used Server OS used by the customers. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)