Whole Slew Of Commercial Linux Apps?

Rannos sent us a somewhat strange ZD story talking about chilliware and their "100 Linux Applications" that they are releasing to retail this year. They claim to be releasing a Linux office suite, too. All closed source. Also talks about the Corel/Microsoft thing a bit.

Comments

Chilliware != Chili!Soft

[SparkyUK]

I see at least one poster who has lost the plot and started off on a ramble about how great Chili!Soft are. This ain't them.

Good for them

[uradu]

I've always advocated that operating systems should be open, in order to facilitate a level playing field for application developers. I see the OS as a sort of super-specification for how to write applications; while most OSs also provide a lot of services above and beyond that, I think their primary role is that of an application running environment. Having a free and open OS is akin to having openly published specs for public utilities. Imagine having secret electrical specs, known only to the people at your local electricity board. They'll come and wire your house for you, but there's no way in hell they'll disclose them to third party contractors.

In this light I view Linux as that open spec OS, the level playing field. Now whether "third party" application developers choose to follow the same economic model with their apps is an entirely different thing. StarOffice or Kylix or what have you provide none of the critical services of the OS, and whether you use them or not is entirely up to you, but not using them does not cripple your ability to use Linux in any way.

Not everybody is convinced by the economic viability of the Open Source way of life. Or--to put another spin on it--not everybody is as the same level of enlightenment regarding Open Source. But by providing an open source operating system and a mechanism for keeping it that way, at least we prevent closed source developers from forcing dependence on them on the rest of the community. After all, for a long time that was the biggest complaint about Microsoft: not that their software wasn't freely available, but that Windows was an opaque environment at the whims of its parent company, deliberately used to gain a competitive advantage by keeping its inner workings obscure, or even changing them periodically to break existing software. Linux as a widespread desktop OS would change all that.

can we assume...

[bubbasatan]

that this is an x86 Linux only thing? I mean, after using Linux on x86 exclusively the last few years, I have now branched out and seen what Linux on Sparc and PPC can do for me. With open source software, I can of course port the stuff with little difficulty. However, this Chillisoft business being closed source, do I then have to wait to be able to buy a different platform version? That was why I quit using closed source crap in the first place!

Greetings from Chilliware...

[Chilliware]

Wow. And I thought I was going to have a nice boring Monday!
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Scott McDaniel. I am the 'Technical Development Manager' at Chilliware, Inc. (Chilliware.net) Essentially, this means that I am in charge of making sure the code is fresh, clean and efficient. (Also, as I am kinda a geek, I am the one that answers questions like the ones posed here today.)
What I would like to do is let you guys know a few things about us, and correct a few mistakes I have seen. If anyone wants to ask further questions or discuss anything, please feel free to email me. (Oh yeah, please excuse any typos. I am the worlds worst typist..yes, even worse that Taco.[heh heh])

Ok, let's start here:

• We are not releasing 100 apps this year. I'm not sure where the idea that these apps were for immediate release came from. I will say that we have white papers started for over 100 different real (Not ICQ clones or panel monitors) apps that we want to do. To start with though, we are releasing:
  

Mohawk, the Apache Server Configuration program. (Will the guy that named his program Mohawk please email me?) iceSculptor, an absolutely kickass DTP program. (If anyone was at NetWorld in Atlanta this past month, you may have seen me demoing it.) and Mentor, a documentation program for Developers. Mentor is a help project manager that creates indexed and compressed help files that can be displayed in an html widget. Very nice stuff.

(By the time you see this, there SHOULD be a set of screenshots up on the products page. If not, check www.chilliware.net/shots/ for a few I did at NetWorld.)

• We are NOT Microsoft. We don't want to be Microsoft. We DO however, want to offer as many software solutions as MS does. As I posted on ZDNet the other day, I don't think that anyone can argue that too many desktop apps is a Bad Thing[tm].
  
• We are NOT ChiliSoft. I don't even want to get into that. Sigh.
  
• We are a new company. New in this case means about 10 months. However, this does not mean we are newbies. Each of our 100+ developers has been writing *nix apps for a while. Our CEO and most of the entire board, are all experienced software guys. This isn't a jump on the bandwagon type of company. Yes, we are privately held and financed. Not that it's anyone business, but alot of the funding from this company came from it's employees. Because we believe in what we're doing. There are no marble foyers or private jets here. We are in this for the long haul.
  
• We did not use Natalie Portman as our spokes model, as rumor has it she does not like grits. That is just wrong. (Couldn't resist, sorry.)
  
• Our desktop apps are closed source. I don't want to get into the licensing thing here, but, I can assure you that all of our code is written from the ground up. I'm sure that if , in the future, someone has a claim that we have used their code, we will be happy to allow them or an external auditor to review said code. Simple as that. It has been job #1 for us that we don't stand on the backs of others in the creation of our software. We are self made. The only Open Source stuff we are using is in our Linux distro, and that will be Open Source, as required by the GPL. We aren't doing this to exploit anyone or anything.
  
• We WILL be releasing some source code in the near future. In particular, we will open up the source for some of our widgets. This will allow other developers to use some of the cool stuff we are doing in their own apps. At this time, I don't have details, but if you're curious to learn more, let me know.

We aren't the typical Linux company. We aren't riding the coattails of anyone else's work. We are not trying to corner the market on anything.
That's the beauty of Linux. The CHOICE. If someone doesn't want to use our software, that's fine. We're sorry to hear it, but, I understand your position.
The whole concept of our company is that we want to bring Linux home.
I really want my wife to be able to design a Christmas card on my Linux desktop machine, without having to run WINE or VMWare to use PrintShop.
I want my Mom to be able to write a letter, do a mail merge, and print said letters out, without having to use a word processor that uses 90% of available memory.
I want my daughter to be able to use an encyclopedia or web browser for her homework, and I want all of this to happen on my Linux Desktop. And I do not want to wait a couple of years for Microsoft to provide this "service" to us.

I know that it is hard to accept this kind of change to what we already know and expect. But remember that we are just trying to put Linux onto as many desktops as possible.
I would like to close now, but first I want to cordially invite you to pop into our offices in L.A..
Send me an email, and we'll make arrangements. Come in, talk to us, maybe join the team...

I'll be keeping an eye on the threads, but I probably won't post any more responses here. I have alot of work to do this week...and I would much rather SHOW you what we can do than just talk about it. :-)

Thanks for your comments everyone.
Scott McDaniel
Technical Development Manager
Chilliware, Inc.
http://www.chilliware.net
213-365-8700

www.Chilliware.net

Support would be a nightmare

[Score 0]

Think about it. In true Wayne's World fashion I will provide three different endings to this question.

User: I am using Product X and it crashes after about ten minutes.
Tech support: Which Linux distribution are you using?

Response #1
U: Yggdrasil (sp?)
TS: Eggdrawhat??

Response #2
U: I rolled my own distro.
TS: *dial tone*

Response #3
U: Debian 2.2
TS: Ok, so your using kernel version 2.2.16?
U: Well, not exactly. I compiled a 2.4 pre release. I also built my own XFree86 4.0.1.
TS: *dial tone*

Re:Good on them!

[Bruce Perens]

It would be good if they were for real. If you read their plans, you won't be sanguine about their chances. But naive investors might believe them. Perhaps, that's the point.

Bruce

Repeat after me: Linux does not compete with win98

[Ars-Fartsica]

Linux has suffered similar problems to the Macintosh: people avoid buying them because "there just isn't enough software for them." They proceed to then buy Windows

Oh come on, this is ridiculous. There is not a significant market of people who seriously consider linux and windows simultaneously when making purchase decisions.

Most linux users want nothing to do with windows (or have a windows box available for the things they need it for), and most windows users only have a vague idea what linux actually is.

Linux is only a mass consumer product insofar as Solaris or FreeBSD are mass consumer markets, and the markets these products actually compete in has almost nothing to do with the windows/mac market.

Good on them!

[mgkimsal2]

We use Linux for development and hosting, but most of the people here still use Windows as their main desktop for day-to-day apps. I'd love to be able to have apps like what they're talking about - contact management, for one, and don't mind paying a reasonable price for them, as long as they're (1) usable and (2) supported should we need that.

Not EVERYTHING needs to be open source! This is precisely the kind of options I think the Linux community needs. We don't all feel like downloading RPMs or source code, make install, etc. If this company makes a distro that they'll make apps for that look good, install easily and have good functionality and decent prices, these guys will do well!

Open or closed, this is a Good Thing.

[Gendou]

I am not going to sit here and tell you that Linux lacks software. Anyone who has ever browsed the Freshmeat archive knows better than to rattle something like that off.

I am going to tell you that John Q. Public who is out browsing the store shelves is going to see have his attention caught rather quickly.

Wow, there are applications for Linux?

Linux has suffered similar problems to the Macintosh: people avoid buying them because "there just isn't enough software for them." They proceed to then buy Windows boxes.

For the mainstream, the subrelease quality of most software on Freshmeat is not sufficient - and Mr. Public does not want to compile his own software. Just so long as ChilliWare produces a good product (aren't they they the ones who produce that software to run ASP on Linux - and looking at their four new products, things are looking good) this will produce many exciting benefits.

And in the long run, there's always the possibility of ChilliSoft opening its software up once they become successful. Hey, look at what Sun did with Star Office (it didn't take that long either).

One Window at a time...

a good step... maybe

[Bad_CRC]

I like to see this. Commercial, closed source retail software is a big step for linux, and I for one would love to see it. Walking into a software store and having more software for linux than just the OS itself isn't something you can do without an EB in your town (loki's only major retail outlet iirc.)

But, this is an unknown company, and their products might be crap. Then the nay-sayers would just love to hold them up as an example if they fail, proclaiming "Selling retail software for linux won't work!" and discouraging other companies from trying the same thing.

Will be interesting to watch. I hope the benefits end up outweighing the potential costs.

________

100 products this year?

[gle]

When I read the article I see:

They'll be releaseing 4 next week.

They plan to release 16 next year (read: maybe 10)

They speak of 100 percent Linux-for-desktop applications, not 100 Linux-for-desktop applications

The journalist speaks of more than 100 desktop Linux apps, without any time frame. I beleive journalists even less than lawers.
And their website is nearly empty. Who said vaporware?

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