Re: Choosing a Linux development platform

[Alexandre Courbot <alexandre.courbot@accesinternet.com>]

Rick Genter wrote:

> 
> 1) How similar are the various Linux's (Linuxii?) right now? I plan to
> support Intel Linux under Red Hat as well as LinuxPPC. If I do development
> under LinuxPPC, how portable will my efforts be to Red Hat Intel (machine
> architecture differences aside)?

The various linux distributions are quite similar. Linux for intel is of
course the best supported, but Linux PPC and Linux alpha seems to work
too (however I haven't tested). Usually you just need to recompile your
program to make it run on another platform (provided of course you don't
use assembler :)).

> 
> 2) The last time I looked at Linux (about a year ago), there was a
> Win95-like window manager that worked reasonably well. Is there a
> Finder-like window manager available for Linux?

MMmmhh you can have the finder look (using enlightenment and the macOS
theme) but there's nothing similar at the feel point of view to the
finder. However Gnome has really a good feelling, somehow similar (and
it has a good look too).
 
> 3) Are there GUI IDEs available for Linux (other than Codewarrior, which I
> am aware of)? Commercial, shareware and freeware leads are all welcome.

Personnally I use emacs + an term, and it's in my opinion the best IDE
ever! ;) 
 
> 4) What is the current state of gcc with respect to: a) C++ language
> support,
Errrr that's the weak point of GCC actually, but you can use egcs. Also
gcc 3.0 will arrive soon and will support C++ well.

 b) optimization proficiency, and c) stability? 
Personnally I'm satisfied by gcc for these points, but everybody doesn't
agree... But when you know that almost every software on a linux system
is compiled with gcc, you can be confident in it ! Biraries are fast,
but that's my opinion again (however on my P100 I can judge the speed of
the binaries!).

> Note that fast
> compiles are NOT of interest to me as much as correct compiles and compiled
> binaries that run fast.
> 
> 5) Though as a developer who takes pride in his work I find a certain
> attractiveness to producing software under GPL/LGPL, I don't see how I can
> make any money at it, and money is *a* motivation for me (obviously not the
> only motivation, nor even the strongest motivation). Is there a way to
> reconcile the shareware model with producing GPL software?

With the GNU GPL, no. You can sell copies of your software, but the
person who buy it can give it to anybody. There are others GPL, you can
read them, or write your own GPL...

See you!
Alex.