What about Ruby, etc?

It's also a dynamic language like those other languages, like Perl and Python. But PHP is by far the most popular.

Why do you think PHP is the most popular?

I think because of our very, very strong focus on the Web. We've always been the most efficient when it comes to developing Web applications. And also it's a very, very easy language to pick up. So you don't have to have to be a software engineer or a computer science graduate to use PHP. I often say that PHP is the Visual Basic of the Web. You can just be kind of an ad hoc developer, no real formal training, and be very, very efficient.

Does PHP displace Java on the server side?

No, I don't think it completely displaces Java. .. I think there is a bit of an overlap. And there's no doubt that there is a trend moving from Java to PHP for Web applications, because Java is too complicated and takes too much time to develop. But there are certain areas where you'd continue to use Java and you wouldn't use PHP. For example, in non-Web related things such as back-end finance systems that [do] two-phase commits, transaction management, message queues. You wouldn't use PHP there.

What's going on with Zend and PHP as far as the Eclipse platform?

Zend joined IBM and we partner with IBM to develop PHP language support in Eclipse. We joined the Eclipse Foundation as a strategic developer. I am Zend's board member on the Eclipse Foundation's board. And we really see this as an opportunity to significantly increase the ecosystem around PHP. [We want to] allow companies to leverage the PHP work we're doing in Eclipse and provide their users, in most cases Java users, very good integration with PHP.

You don't see any clash between what Zend is doing and what you're doing with Eclipse in PHP?

No. First of all, it very much complements what we call our collaboration strategy or collaborative strategy, where we try and increase and build the ecosystem around us and PHP. And secondly, we also plan to leverage Eclipse for our own products.

Which products would those be?

We will be definitely using the Rich Client Platform of Eclipse for [a new] GUI in the Zend Guard product [for intellectual property protection].

How will you use it for the Zend Guard product?

It's like a management GUI. ... We use the Rich Client Platform as the underlying technology. And we will also be providing development tools that are built on Eclipse.

What is your take on the Oracle announcement last week about supporting Red Hat Linux? Do you think this is a death knell for Red Hat?

I'm not sure. If Oracle succeeds, I don't know if it's a death knell. I think still a lot of vendors are going to prefer kind of the best-of-breed vendor for Linux. But [Red Hat] could lose some business, especially the Oracle business. [Red Had has] got some pricing pressure... There's obviously another option, which is that Oracle is just trying to drive down the price [of Red Hat stock]. And maybe this is a one- to two-year plan to actually acquire Red Hat.