Re: I've thought better of Linux

"Brandon J. Van Every" <mylastnameruntogether@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Ulrich Hobelmann wrote:
> > Brandon J. Van Every wrote:
> >
> >> I'm also realizing how irrelevant Linux is to shipping games. It
> >> isn't "an extra platform where I might pick up a few sales." It is
> >> an impossible platform.
> > I could have told you that ;)
> > Linuxers don't buy software. That's why they use Linux. But Unix
> > in general is a great platform for *development*, like most Lisps
> > run well on Unix, but not other systems. Just don't expect to write
> > commercial stuff FOR linux.

While I am not convinced Linux will ever be a real contender in the
market for desktop solutions, there is a rapidly growing market for
commercial software running on Linux within the server marketplace. In
fact, many organisations are moving away from expensive IBM/Sun/HP
"boom boxes" to smaller (and often clustered) Linux based
systems. Some companies, like Oracle, have moved all their developers
onto Linux as their development platform. Where I work, all but one of
our major systems are now supported on a Linux platform and we are
moving away from Alpha based servers to 64 bit Opterons running Linux
and this is software representing considerable investment (in the
order of $1.5 Million just to purchase it and then you have licensing,
maintenance etc).

It is incorrect to imply that you cannot be successful with commercial
software for a Linux platform. While I would agree that attempting to
be successful in the desktop market would be very difficult (but not
impossible witht he right app), commercial software for a Linux based
server market is certainly possible.

I also don't agree with the statement that Linux users don't pay for
software and thats why they use Linux. Therre are plenty of Linux
users who purchase their distro rather than download it. I've run
commercial paid for software on Linux since the mid 90's. While I
would agree many people try out Linux because it is free and
represents no real investment to try it out, my experience has been
that those who stick with it do so for a lot of reasons other than it
being free - mainly its stability, fewer issues with viruses and to
some extent its freedom to explore.

[Of course, the real reason is that we are all really just Communists
with an evil agenda to over throw this utopia we call Capitalism and
destroy everyones freedoms and ability to earn squillions Whahahahah]
--
Tim Cross
The e-mail address on this message is FALSE (obviously!). My real e-mail is
to a company in Australia called rapttech and my login is tcross - if you
really need to send mail, you should be able to work it out!
.

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