Facebook users: ask for Linux software

[Dotan Cohen]

On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 03:59, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> And people get used to software for free and thus they become reluctant to pay.
>

I wonder how valid this statement is. I personally would gladly pay
for Ubuntu, in fact I've donated to almost every single FOSS project
that I use. If I were to stay on Windows, pay for the OS and use the
same apps that I do today, I would probably have shelled out less
money.

Also, I would pay for Photoshop, MS Office, or Dragon Naturally
Speaking on Linux. I have no problem paying for quality software.


> These had supported a small software market for commercial desktop
> Unix apps. Framemaker was probably the big star, but there was
> Applixware, Mathematica, Wordperfect and other apps - lots of
> specialist workstation stuff, in particular.
>

There's a great example: when I was studying I paid for Maple on
Linux. I still have the license even though I'm no longer a student.


> So the commercial desktop Unix market was actually damaged by Linux, not helped.
>

However, now most new Linux users are coming from the Windows world,
where they are used to paying for software.


> Also, there is a regrettable, seldom-mentioned but real correlation
> between people downloading legitimate free software and people
> downloading illegitimate, pirated free software, off Bittorrent seeds
> and so on. If anything, because Linux is so open and tweakable, it's
> probably easier to pirate commercial Linux apps than Windows apps.
> There are lots of commercial copy-protection products for Windows and
> even some for Mac OS X.
>

>From where did you draw that correlation? I don't have a single
unlicensed bit on this harddrive. Quite the opposite, I remember the
Windows world actively encouraging downloading unlicensed software
with "cracks" and such.


> In other words, frankly, I would reluctantly have to agree with
> commercial companies that expressed reluctance to port to Linux. It's
> not done well for many vendors so far - I can't name anyone that's had
> a successful commercial app on Linux. Can anyone else?
>

Codeweavers Crossover? :)


-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com