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What Dropbox Dropping Linux Support Says (techrepublic.com)
Jack Wallen, writing for TechRepublic: For a company to support Linux, they have to consider supporting: Multiple file systems, multiple distributions, multiple desktops, multiple init systems, multiple kernels. If you're an open source developer, focusing on a single distribution, that's not a problem. If you're a company that produces a product (and you stake your living on that product), those multiple points of entry do become a problem. Let's consider Adobe (and Photoshop). If Adobe wanted to port their industry-leading product to Linux, how do they do that? Do they spend the time developing support for ext4, btrfs, Ubuntu, Fedora, GNOME, Mate, KDE, systemd? You see how that might look from the eyes of any given company?
It becomes even more complicated when companies consider how accustomed to the idea of "free" (as in beer) Linux users are. Although I am very willing to pay for software on Linux, it's a rare occasion that I do (mostly because I haven't found a piece of must-have software that has an associated cost). Few companies will support the Linux desktop when the act of supporting means putting that much time and effort into a product that a large cross-section of users might wind up unwilling to pay the price of admission. That's not to say every Linux user is unwilling to shell out the cost for a piece of software. But many won't.
It becomes even more complicated when companies consider how accustomed to the idea of "free" (as in beer) Linux users are. Although I am very willing to pay for software on Linux, it's a rare occasion that I do (mostly because I haven't found a piece of must-have software that has an associated cost). Few companies will support the Linux desktop when the act of supporting means putting that much time and effort into a product that a large cross-section of users might wind up unwilling to pay the price of admission. That's not to say every Linux user is unwilling to shell out the cost for a piece of software. But many won't.
systemd: If Photoshop cares about my init system, something have gone really really wrong. No issue at all.
Here's where I think you have gone wrong. It's not that Photoshop cares about systemd, it's that one of systemd's goals is to overtake everything and in the process subsume Photoshop.
Emacs is also on that list, but the timeframe for that is an order of magnitude later.
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From the comments sections:
P. B. Lecavalier • 7 days ago
I wrote a detailed comment demonstrating how this "award-winning" author has seemingly no idea of what he's talking about. It was swiftly deleted. Fine. I'll leave you with your spectacle of illusions.
...of Linux on the DropBox?