Most programs in open source are written in C++, perl, or python. Those are the big three languages...of course, java is coming up from behind.

You might check Qt. Qt is a graphical C++ compiler for the Xwindow environment in Linux...

I recommend MEPIS to give Linux a try...it has a LIVE CD option and is very cool to run...plus it detects anything I throw at it and autoinstalls it.

Well it's difficult to predict long-term but its a pretty good bet that open-source would play a major role in the future...due to a number of reasons like its distributed nature...low cost...and so on...
Piyush

Open source is currently headed down the same road that the dot com vc's traveled.

Big investments are being made with no roi predictions from working models.

It is strictly Las Vegas dreams but without the House's Edge, like your own copyrighted language or O/S or prepaid licensing.

I'm sure Bill G. is laughing his butt off. But FREE O/S's like Linux, is another story. The are probably giving Bill both gas and nightmares.

A compiler? I thought it was a library. And it's a GPL'ed library, forcing all your code to be GPL, as well. If you want the non-GPL'ed version, you have to fork over thousands of dollars.