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The Most Desired Linux Ports
zenboomerang writes "It looks like Novell is trying to hit the hammer on the top of software developers heads and try and get them to port their applications directly to Linux. With help from the public they will try to pursuade the management of the most popular programs picked to get into the 21st Century and do some Linux testing. It seems to me to be a good idea and all it needs is a little help from the community."
Convince Adobe to bring Photoshop to Linux and I know dozens of people who'll switch in an eyeblink.
That said, I don't think you'd ever see iTunes for Linux (and I was amazed it was on the list, I would have never guessed it).
And then there is Visio. That will never be ported either. If Visio is there, why isn't Office? That said, I've never met someone who liked Visio in the two years or so I've been exposed to it. What Visio needs first is a good Windows port. OmniGraffle is much better. How about a Linux port of that?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Oh, come on. There have got to be a ton of other people that want their CS:S fix without having to keep around a Windows box. And don't start with that Cedega crap. I want it a real Linux installer.
That's right, they are all propriatery. The groups who use this software are so bound into it's usage that the very idea of trying to substitude one of these programs for a Free one makes people scared. It won't matter how closely Free software can mimic those programs, as long as they aren't *EXACTLY* the same, they won't touch'em.
Also this article sounds way to much like begging to me.
"please sir, can we have these program ported! Please!". "All our money will belong to you if you do!" etc. Why do we need these programs so badly? Might it be because now there is some value to be found in using Free software?
I'm sorry if I sound a bit bitter about this. I worked at a small firm where everyone was using popular propriatery software, always without any proper licenses. If I talked about it or sugested a substitude (gimp for photoshop) people would just say that it didn't matter and that everyone did it, so why shouldn't they.
If people were actually forced to pay for all the software that they used (that they can't get for free legally) there might be a serious effort put into trying alternatives.
Just let me ask you one question.
How often in the last month have you been asked for a copy of a propriatery program that you know you aren't legally allowed to copy and distribute to others?
A bad analogy is like a leaky screwdriver.
Because it's not true.
A few years back, it was "I'd switch to Linux if (insert game) ran on Linux." Or "I'd switch to Linux if Word ran on Linux." Or "I'd switch to Linux if it was easy to set up stuff that I need on Linux."
Not "Microsoft Word", just "Word", so these are probably people who would be fine with OpenOffice. And yes, there was free StarOffice back then.
All of these have been fixed. Microsoft Word does run on Linux, even if you can't deal with OpenOffice. Quite a lot of decent games run natively on Linux, and if you go nVidia, it's not hard to set up. I mean, alright, you don't have AutoPlay -- which is a GOOD THING, remember that rootkit stuff? But I think people can handle typing "emerge quake4".
Plenty of games now work out-of-the-box on Wine, and more work out-of-the-box on Cedega, from the insanely popular (WoW, Counter-Strike) to the unheard of (NexusTK). Drivers come with distros, usually, or are quite easy to find/install.
More recently, there've been other reasons, other things that aren't compatible, but the most commonly cited is "I don't want to learn a new system, and I'm afraid most of my stuff wouldn't work on it." Which is the same old FUD.
If you are hearing that a lot, make a bet with someone. Get them to switch to Linux. Most of the technical stuff is close enough, what we need now is the marketshare so that the FUD can't hold. Making it "cleaner" (native versions instead of Wine) can come later.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!