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If You Port It, They Will Come
An anonymous reader submits "An excellent rant^H^H^H^Harticle is up over at LinuxLaboratory.org, encouraging proprietary companies that make software for Windows to provide a full-featured equivalent for Linux. The argument being made that users aren't cheap skates, they will pay for good software. But many companies that port software to Linux will only ship stripped-down versions, leading to people not buying the software when they can buy the complete version for Windows, then the company not providing the software for Linux because it didnt sell. The argument is made that if the Linux version were equivalent to the Windows version, then people will buy it."
Take VMWare for example. The Linux version is not only full featured, but is actually more robust and rigged with stuff like SCSI emulation.
0x2b or not 0x2b, the answer is -1
Corel Wordperfect 8 for Linux was so horribly bad, I actually quit using it and moved over to StarOffice 5 instead. I'd rather use a bloated, buggy, fugly interface than a piece of software that is so confusingly laid out, and so very non-conformant to the OS it's running.
Blech. It's no wonder that when M$ bought out Corel it didn't affect the Linux community one iota.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
error in that logic. People who use linux are too cheap to buy an operating system, they aren't going to pay for software. They will always seek out the free/open source alternative. Star Office now costs money, so a lot of people switch to Open Office. There is a group of wealthy/affluent/well off linux users who would pay for it. But how many people bought quake 3 for linux? I bet there are more people running quake 3 with wine than bought the linux version. And both version are the same game.
Linux users are a unique market in that they are a group of people who disliked the mainstream product, and rather than buy a different one, they made their own, and they share it with the world at no cost. No matter what you try to sell them, someone isn't going to like it and will make their own and share it. There is only one way to break into this market. Say a company like Adobe gives away illustrator/photoshop for free for linux. And charges for the windows version. For home users only (not businesses). And let's say these version were just as good if not better than the windows/mac versions. I guarantee a decrease in use of the gimp over a period of months. The gimp is good, just photoshop is better, its the best in fact.
The next step is to wait until people switch away from windows just to use the free and maybe better version of photoshop in linux. At this point release a new version with lots and lots of new features and upgrades, and charge 50$ for it. Not 500$. No home users will ever pay 500$ for software, they will just pirate it.
Now you have people at home using linux and and photoshop and adobe making money off of them. The same people will become used to linux/photohsop at home they will switch away from windows at work. Now all the companies will switch to linux/photoshop (even though photoshop for a busniness costs 500$) because its a better version of a program that is important to their business, and their employees are more proficient with the linux version. Even at 500$ photoshop/linux is cheaper than photoshop/windows.
Photoshop is just an example. And this is just one possible scenario. But I see it as a very easy way to get more linux users and better software for linux. As well as bringing much needed revenue into the open source community.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
All of the responses below are about WordPerfect 9 for Linux, which was indeed based on Wine.
WordPerfect 8 for Linux, which was available at least a two years before then, was a native Linux application based on Motif and worked very well indeed. It's the same application released by Corel for a number of different Unix systems.
It was as cheap as $29.00 at the local CompUSA by the time WordPerfect Office 9 for Linux was released, and yet it still wasn't selling.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
> Wrote a motif software? People call it ugly.
.rpm only thing?
Then write it for Qt and it will work (and look+feel right) on Windows, Linux and MacOS X. Time to port ? Recompile.
> Wrote your own widget? People still bitch.
I presume you mean widget set. Of course they will bitch. That's a stupid thing to do.
> Wrote it in GTK 1? Gotta upgrade to GTK 2 now.
Most Linux dists use KDE as their desktop. Write your code
for Qt. If you can't bring yourself to write C++, use the C, Objective C, C#, Java or Python bindings.
> Nevermind all those bitching KDE users. Go ahead, write it
> with QT3 and the fancy KDE3 integration. I'm still bitching;
> I use windowmaker.
Ah, another person don't know the difference between a desktop environment and a window manager. See the end of the startkde script - it tells you how to change which window manager is used. I wouldn't advise Window Maker though - it doesn't support the NET WM standard.
> It's x86 only? Mac linux people whine.
If it's x86 only, you need to port some of your asm or you need to correct some little bugs. Not hard.
> It doesn't work with the latest glibc?
If not, you have some problems with your coding practices. Either that, or you are writing some very low-level code, in which case you are quite used to dealing with such problems.
> It's redhat only?
Are we talking about Redhat using a version of GNU C++ which is incompatible with everyone else and not endorsed as a release by the GCC team ? Well, we have Redhat to thank (or not) for that. If I had been a Redhat user, I would have immediately become an ex-user.
> WTF is this
1. Most Linux distributions use RPM.
2. RPMs can be used on all Linux distributions. Those that
don't support it 'out of the box' are just being awkward.
If you use such a distribution, it would be great if you'd
ask the developers to support RPM out of the box, so those
of us trying to get Linux onto people's computers don't
have to face awkward questions about packaging.
Or to put it another way, I don't care how technically superior some non-RPM brand of package management is. If you're putting out a Linux distribution that doesn't support RPM, you're holding back adoption of Linux by making it more difficult to package for.
> Why aren't you taking advantage of XRENDER? I want my aa
> fonts, dammit.
If you're writing Qt code, you already are.
> Where the ALSA version?
Are we talking 'pro' audio apps here or just wanting to play
music ? If you want to play music, use libao (see xiph.org) which gives you cross-platform support for sound output. It works well, too. As for 'pro' audio, well, ALSA is approximately ready to provide support, but not everyone is using ALSA 0.9x. Also, it's pretty bad to have to ask your users to patch their kernel just to provide low enough latency for pro audio, so we're a way off it being viable to port such apps.
> It doesn't cut and paste right! (It never will. As long as
> gnome and kde doesn't work perfectly with each other, it
> ain't working on one of them.)
They do. Gnome 2 + KDE 3 talk to each other just nicely and
will continue to do. There's a standard in place now. Sorry we didn't get it right first time.
Rik
packeteer:
;)
No, sorry your wrong. Winex was forked because the makers are under NDA.
***
Nope. Sorrry. The fork was done simply to make money. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it is the truth.
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packeteer:
It was forked because the old WINE license required all source to be given away.
***
Again, incorrect. The _old_ WINE license is BSD, which means anyone can use it for any reason.
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packeteer:
Winex DOES charge money but not for all things. If you dont subscribe you can download the CVS version which contains no copy-protection code and is pure source.
***
Thus destroying your original argument. Remember, the source they give is under the _Alladin_ license, not the LGPL or BSD like Wine (Wine's new license is the LGPL, although I believe they are still maintaining a BSD tree).
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packeteer:
So really in my opinion Winex is the best thing since emacs (an invention so useful it can almost replace sliced bread but i think thats a few patches away)
***
I won't disagree with you there. Actually, I think the release of Blender as open-source might be a _bit_ cooler, but maybe not. Also CrossOver Office is pretty cool.
Engineering and the Ultimate
You can also read every detail of every part of Linux and every GPL program and use this knowledge to improve your program so it works better with them and you still are not violating any licenses.
Any program with "same functionality as the Windows version" that is violating the GPL means the Windows version is violating the GPL, too. If it is not, take the non-violating code out of the Windows version and put it in the Linux one!
The main reason functionality is missing is due to proprietary libraries on Win32, actually. If you can't get the source or you are not allowed to port the library to Linux, then you have to cut the functions out.