Hi: I don't think we really have much to worry about. Yes, console-mode aps do tend to lag a little, particularly in some areas (can anyone say audio editing?), but a lot of people who write applications prefer to use the text console and, as long as that continues to be the case, applications will continue to be written for it. The big difference between the DOS/Windows comparison and the console/X comparison under Linux, is the fact that in LInux, it really is just a matter of a different interface. With windows, DOS had fairly severe limits which were difficult to overcome. It also had no fascility for multitasking (many would say that Windows doesn't either, but it at least looks as if it does). It's also not easy to use the same or similar code for both. In Linux, the underlying code can be the same, you just slap a new interface on it. People who do this often write their functionality into libs, which makes it completely UI independent. I think the main problem with web browsers in particular is that most of them have their origins bak in the days when the web was simple and client-side processing wasn't even thought of. I think if anyone was to write a text-mode web browser these days, they'd do it in such a way that it would incorporate a document object model and allow for client-side applications such as scripting and applets. The UI is more an indicator of the age of some of these aps than anything else. I first saw lynx in 1994 and it was version 2.3 then. And I know PIne was at 3.89 in 1994, so it's not exactly new either. Geoff.
