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150

First get Adobe to write for linux, THEN sell linux PC's

150 points posted to Linux, Software, Desktops and Laptops by rotwang 02/21/07

Before Linux on the desktop will ever be mainstream (as in greater than 1%), the linux community will need to learn to accept commercial software running in linux.

Presently there is an anti-commercial attitude in the linux community which is an overreaction to Microsoft. Microsoft is evil, not all commercial software is. The attitude is reinforced by the (otherwise goodly and beneficial) distribution systems like yum and apt. Those systems are great at distributing open source software. They don't do so well at commercial software. This hard-codes the anti-commercial attitude.

Until major commercial software is written for linux, linux on the desktop will forever be niche. Faking it with wine and vmware is just that.

Presently, getting Adobe's support would be the most significant thing for linux on the desktop. Dear dell, get Adobe to write it's apps for linux. Make deals.

And btw, because I know some of you will, don't forget that Adobe sells other apps besides Photoshop.

moseby
02/21/07		 I agree that some folks are openly hostile to commercial software. On the other hand, I don't think that commercial software vendors understand what it takes to keep up with a fast moving target like Linux distributions. I have personally used a number of commercial products on linux systems.

The good ones provide their customers with frequent updates to not only correct bugs, but to also follow the evolution of the distributions in general and the kernel in particular. Vmware Workstation is a good example.

The bad ones seem to only half heartedly support this OS. They rarely release updated versions and only support certain versions of certain distros. They don't stay current with security updates as well. I won't cause myself a liability problem by naming names here.

I think there are more bad than good out there, which is a main contributor to the anti-commercial perception.
lesleyb
02/21/07		 I have used Adobe Acrobat reader on SuSE no problem at all for the last three years
rotwang
02/22/07		 lesleyb have you used Adobe Flex Builder in SuSE? How about Audition, or Illustrator, or After Effects, or the Flash Pro IDE?
cyber_rigger
02/28/07		 Companies selling preinstalled Linux (unlike

http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/23168/
http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14
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