DATA POINTS: THE LINUX CONFIDENCE LEVEL.

Linux fans are everywhere, but the tough question--especially for commercial software developers--is whether these enthusiasts trust Linux enough to use it as a platform for serious applications. A new developer survey from Evans Marketing Services suggests that confidence in Linux is rising rapidly: More than 40% of corporate development managers currently feel "comfortable" about using Linux for mission-critical applications, up 10% from a similar survey a half-year earlier. There are still a good many Linux skeptics, the Evans report notes, but that percentage has dropped from 58% to 35% in the same six month period. "The change has become obvious and dramatic," the report concludes.

Evans Marketing Services, 100 Doyle St., Santa Cruz, Calif. 95062; 831/425-8451. Enterprise Development Management Issues, Vol. 2. Web: www.evansmarketing.com.

TOSHIBA chief executive Taizo Nishimuro on appliance-like computing devices: "The world is changing--the PC will remain as one of the strong powers, but other devices will emerge as communications vehicles for the Internet." (Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 2/25/00)

SEGA senior vice president of marketing Peter Moore on Microsoft's late entry into the console market: "By the fall of 2001, when Microsoft will just be coming out with their console, we will have 350 game titles. How many will they have? Quite frankly, it's all about games." (Quoted in The Boston Globe, 3/11/00)

MICROSOFT games division head Robert J. Bach on his company's planned $200 million X-Box promotional budget: "We'll spend more launching and marketing this than Windows 95." (Quoted in Business Week, 3/20/00)

MICROSOFT X-Box manager J. Allard on his company's inexperience with console game players: "Microsoft gets the den. What Microsoft doesn't get is the living room." (quoted in Time, 3/20/00)

i-DRIVE chief executive Jeff Bonforte on the benefits of having excess office space in Silicon Valley: "We'll probably make more on subletting our own space this year than on anything else." (Quoted in Fortune, 2/00)

SUN MICROSYSTEMS chief executive on whether his COO, Ed Zander, outranks other Sun senior executives: "I have an arc structure that has a chief operating officer, chief strategy officer, chief technical officer and chief human resources officer directly reporting to me. You tell me which of my children is No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4." (Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 2/24/00)

COMPUTER ASSOCIATES chief executive Charles Wang on the role of his chief operating officer and heir apparent: "We do things together. He happens to have the unfortunate task of doing everything I don't like to do." (Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 10/10/99)

DOUBLECLICK chief executive Kevin O'Connor on criticism that his Web advertising service planned "in the absence of government and industry privacy standards" to use its Web tracking data to compile a huge database of consumer profiles: "DoubleClick has not implemented this plan, and has never associated names or any other personally identifiable information with anonymous user activity across Web sites." (Quoted in Infoworld, 3/6/00)

ADVISORY COMMISSION ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE chairman James Gilmore on his belief that sales taxes should not be imposed on the Internet: "The 21st century offers the promise of smaller, more efficient government. The Internet changes everything--including government. Government at all levels must now begin to harness the efficiencies and productivity increases facilitated by information technology and the Internet. Free enterprise is doing it. Government must do it, too." (Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 3/23/00)