1) Are there any former Delphi developers who abandoned Delphi and switched to Lazarus and FPC exclusively for commercial software development?
I was a Delphi programmer who used Delphi 5 and 7. At some point, I'd like to use Lazarus / FPC as a complete replacement for Delphi.
I believe that it can happen. I've been watching Lazarus / FPC mature, and it's going quite nicely.
Kudos to the Lazarus / FPC teams. And thank you for all your hard work.
2) Is Lazarus and FPC mature enough to be used to develop enterprise desktop applications ?
I have to say, Lazarus is getting there. There is a learning curve; Delphi programmers have to search around and tinker to convert their existing code to Lazarus / FPC, but IMHO, the end result is worth it. There are a few quirks and bugs, but they're working on it. The ability to dock IDE forms like Delphi would be really nice, but, since the IDE source code is available, someone can make an attempt at modifying the code and doing it themselves.
Could you do that with Delphi?
And with 64 bit support, Lazarus / FPC can compete with Embarcadero. Perhaps not this second, but as long as programmers continue to put their hearts and souls into Lazarus / FPC, The projects will grow into greatness and completely achieve that role.
Did I mention it's free?
:MJ