...most commercial Linux software fails or is never ported in the first place is because it probably isn't easily available to them or for some other reasons.
First of all, it's not easy to get Linux software. Many places sell Linux distro's (usually Redhat or Mandrake, and every once in a while you'll find Suse around)... but how many places actually sell Linux apps? Only Electronics Boutique in my area sold Linux apps, and it was only for a short while. Really, the only way you can get a commercial Linux app is to order it off the internet. I don't buy it for the same reason I prefer to enter Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million rather than Amazon.com... It is just much simpler to enter a store than to order something online, especially for me, since I'm only 17 and I don't have a credit card. Also, when I go buy software or hardware, it usually ends up being something that I have read about online and when I saw the product in the store, I just bought it. With buying things online, I have to get my dad's credit card numbers (which he has no clue as to whether the billing address is the warehouse, the store, the house, the post office box, wherever)... It is just way too much hassle, especially if you have to make a return. It just isn't worth it, even if it is Linux software.
If there was something that I especially did want, then I would have already bought it. I think it's crappy that I have to pay twice for something that I already have (although in win32 form). I'd pay something like $10 for some Linux binaries (if it's at the store, of course), but I would not pay full price again for a game. Mac users would buy ports that were released way later because they can't have it on their computer simply because it wouldn't work at all, while a Linux user simply needs to see how it runs in wine or do a simple reboot into Windows (which takes only a couple of minutes).
Also whatever is ported simply isn't appealing to me. Loki did a lot of ports, but they couldn't do everything under the sun, and so their selection was quite limited. I know a few games that I would have bought (I don't buy Windows software anymore), but they weren't ported during Loki's existance, and probably the only thing I would have bought from them was Descent 3, and I probably wouldn't have bought it anyway due to the reasons listed above. Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament I can download binaries for, so I didn't give a damn about Quake 3 for Linux in the cool-looking tin box.
Also, sometimes there are suitable substitutes. I don't need WordPerfect. AbiWord, KWord, or OpenOffice already suit my needs perfectly. I only touch word processing software when I need to type up something that will have bold text or a footnote. I don't need Photoshop; for when I need something with a little more power than MS paint I use GIMP. There is a lot of free software that may not have as many features as the commercial versions but are still useful, useful enough that while it may not be suitable for you but it is for me, so I don't go out and buy those programs.
Also, in response to all those complaints about Linux users being cheap and saying that "hey, they won't buy distro x but would rather download it!", well, it only makes since that if you can legally obtain it for free, why not? Why buy Redhat 6.0 at the store, when you can get 7.2 (or whatever the latest version is, I don't know, I use Gentoo), for free? It's called being smart, I don't buy outdated distros with tech support I would never ever use.
So really what I really want is a wide selection of software for Linux, that can be bought at the store, and the games that I really want sould ship the same day as the Windows version. Only happens in utopia, of course, and unless this happens, the commercial Linux software market will not do well.
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The ISPs are simply trying to stay alive by trying to sell supposedly faster internet access because the telco's won't let them sell dsl anywhere.
Unlike all the other office software that looks beautiful and sexy, Openoffice looks like a trashy prostitute. ;)
The Wendy's guy is a programmer? Wow.
The government won't let us distribute our own crypto freely, but they fund foreigners to make cryptography, to distribute to the whole world?
I'll tell RMS if you don't release the source!
Do you know what that symbolizes? It's _funny_. Laugh.
I guess you went over to http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/evilfinder/ , huh?
I bought the thing when I was 13. It took every bit of spare change I could manage to get a hold of...
I had a Scanjet 4100C that just broke the other day...
...most commercial Linux software fails or is never ported in the first place is because it probably isn't easily available to them or for some other reasons. First of all, it's not easy to get Linux software. Many places sell Linux distro's (usually Redhat or Mandrake, and every once in a while you'll find Suse around)... but how many places actually sell Linux apps? Only Electronics Boutique in my area sold Linux apps, and it was only for a short while. Really, the only way you can get a commercial Linux app is to order it off the internet. I don't buy it for the same reason I prefer to enter Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million rather than Amazon.com... It is just much simpler to enter a store than to order something online, especially for me, since I'm only 17 and I don't have a credit card. Also, when I go buy software or hardware, it usually ends up being something that I have read about online and when I saw the product in the store, I just bought it. With buying things online, I have to get my dad's credit card numbers (which he has no clue as to whether the billing address is the warehouse, the store, the house, the post office box, wherever)... It is just way too much hassle, especially if you have to make a return. It just isn't worth it, even if it is Linux software. If there was something that I especially did want, then I would have already bought it. I think it's crappy that I have to pay twice for something that I already have (although in win32 form). I'd pay something like $10 for some Linux binaries (if it's at the store, of course), but I would not pay full price again for a game. Mac users would buy ports that were released way later because they can't have it on their computer simply because it wouldn't work at all, while a Linux user simply needs to see how it runs in wine or do a simple reboot into Windows (which takes only a couple of minutes). Also whatever is ported simply isn't appealing to me. Loki did a lot of ports, but they couldn't do everything under the sun, and so their selection was quite limited. I know a few games that I would have bought (I don't buy Windows software anymore), but they weren't ported during Loki's existance, and probably the only thing I would have bought from them was Descent 3, and I probably wouldn't have bought it anyway due to the reasons listed above. Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament I can download binaries for, so I didn't give a damn about Quake 3 for Linux in the cool-looking tin box. Also, sometimes there are suitable substitutes. I don't need WordPerfect. AbiWord, KWord, or OpenOffice already suit my needs perfectly. I only touch word processing software when I need to type up something that will have bold text or a footnote. I don't need Photoshop; for when I need something with a little more power than MS paint I use GIMP. There is a lot of free software that may not have as many features as the commercial versions but are still useful, useful enough that while it may not be suitable for you but it is for me, so I don't go out and buy those programs. Also, in response to all those complaints about Linux users being cheap and saying that "hey, they won't buy distro x but would rather download it!", well, it only makes since that if you can legally obtain it for free, why not? Why buy Redhat 6.0 at the store, when you can get 7.2 (or whatever the latest version is, I don't know, I use Gentoo), for free? It's called being smart, I don't buy outdated distros with tech support I would never ever use. So really what I really want is a wide selection of software for Linux, that can be bought at the store, and the games that I really want sould ship the same day as the Windows version. Only happens in utopia, of course, and unless this happens, the commercial Linux software market will not do well.