Submitted by Novell is running a survey on which applications people are most interested in getting ported to Linux. With enough votes, they’ll take the highest ranked ones and present the results to the companies, hopefully in persuading them to consider that there is a market. You can read a preliminary report, or take the survey yourself.
…but dream on.
Why? It can be done, just because you don’t think so doesn’t change that. As it is now many of these applications can be run in CrossOverOffice, if winelib was improved they could even be compiled for windows, and then linked to winelib for distribution in Linux with little modification.
Novell has money to make changes with, and even if they don’t at least the idea is good. Might as well try and see what happens than not try at all and never get any results.
Why? It can be done, just because you don’t think so doesn’t change that.
Just because you think so, it doesn’t change the economics of what is actually going to make those software vendors port to Linux. There’s no installed base, no market and the technology is not up to snuff.
Novell has money to make changes with
Oh right. So they’re going to throw money at these ISVs to port their applications? Silly me. Of course it’s going to work.
“Just because you think so, it doesn’t change the economics of what is actually going to make those software vendors port to Linux. There’s no installed base, no market and the technology is not up to snuff.”
It is the economics, no doubt about it. That I agree with. These same companies make software for OS X, which has the same share as Linux according to different surveys. Unfortunately, at this time, will never get a true accounting of the installed and user base of Linux for the simple fact of downloading a distro and installing it does not get counted. If the distro is purchased it gets counted. Computres that ship with Windows, and Macs are all counted as Windows users, even if the purchaser wipes the drive or dual boots. The user base is out there, IMHO, it is just an unknown, which both marketing types and upper management despise.
By answering this survey you actually show that there IS a user base, so with enough answers, then maybe things will happen.
“Computres that ship with Windows, and Macs are all counted as Windows users…”
Should read “Computers that ship with Windows, and Macs are all counted as Windows or OS X users respectively,…”
I have found it impossible to get my AverMedia PCI 550 tuner to work.
I have found it impossible to get my AverMedia PCI 550 tuner to work.
Have you tried buying a good one that is actually known to work?
I bought the card before I started using Linux. The PCI 550 is a GREAT card, just not for Linux. I’ve thought about getting another card, but been holding off hoping someone releases a solution for it.
In case you own an AverMedia UltraTV Media Center PCI 550, this seems to be supported in 2.6.15:
http://www.linux-m32r.org/lxr/http/source/Documentation/video4linux…
Games.
But now I just bought my second Mac in a year (new 20″ intel iMac) and I’m a bit less interested in the Linux train now.
Yes simple, just write a list of important apps for your job. Lets see, stuff like E-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, browsers and databases are already there in abundance. No need to worry about that.
Having covered the basics, over to the more interresting and expensive tools. Like the toolchains from Mentor and Xilinx, Matlab and LabWindows. Oh, they are already available. That penguin really gets around. Other fields of work may have different requirements for programs, I can’t tell.
It brings me at least away from work and back with games and other recreational programs for home users. But they are not particularly interresting for companies, which is the target for this poll.
Edited 2006-01-26 01:21
who wants any of those apps anyway, and most of them already work under wine.
nero recode and anydvd please, then i can completely ditch windows.
“nero recode”
http://k9copy.free.fr/
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=23885
http://roadkillscafe.blogspot.com/2005/12/puttin-squeeze-on-dvds-wi…
http://www.linuxgazette.com/node/10872
they have to be completely free.
It’s delightful to see a list like this that doesn’t contain Microsoft Office, though.
“And most important, they have to be completely free.”
No, they don’t. If a company such as Novel, or anyone else for that matter, expends resources to develop or port products that people want in Linux, there may be charges involved.
Consider porting Quickbooks to Linux so that it will run natively. Intuit will probably want what they would feel a fair amount of money for licensing their proprietary code to an outside party that wants to port the code to Linux. And that would actually be fair.
The same would apply to AutoDesk for AutoCAD, Corel for WordPerfect and many other companies.
The positive side of this is that entirely new groups of users would be open to these companies if their products were ported to Linux.
My 2 Cents.
“they have to be completely free.”
Just out of curiosity….why??
Just because software RUNS on Linux does not mean it has to be free, as in code or in cost.
Personally I have no problem paying for software, when the software is worth the money, and if it costs and is not worth the money, I don’t use it.
Please Answer the following questions:
Your Company/Organization:
First Name:
Last Name:
E-Mail Address:
no thanks.
It’s not made public and as with most sites is an attempt to stop individuals from posting repeat requests.
The only discernible thread is top-class finance/accounts and business contact management. Well, OK then: does that mean there is a market for a new business desktop for Linux? It’s market segment that could perhaps be colonised. There is no chance, imho, that the Adobe design side of things will go anywhere. That is for the Mac.
The rest looks like wishful thinking. So an app is very popular, so lots of folks would like to run it. But that doesn’t make a strategy for the software house concerned. Many big apps need a whole ecosystem behind them. For example, an industry-standard dtp package would need access to the font libraries from the major foundries, as well as collaboration and workflow plugins, etc, etc. Big mountain to climb.
running windows apps on linux is seamless.
Why bother writing the apps for linux. just run them.
That’s more easily said than done, but even if it weren’t, native programs are preferable to non-native ones being run in some kind of compatibility layer. The WINE project has done a great job of replicating Windows functionality in Linux. They have even had to replicate some of the failings/bugs of Windows because programs were made to work around them during the testing phase of development.
I’m not saying that Linux doesn’t have failings of its own. I’m not saying that WINE isn’t a great tool for those that want to use Linux but need one or two Windows programs. I use WINE to scratch the occasional itch.
Unfortunately, when all is said and done, WINE on Linux can’t yet (it might never) replace Windows for everyone that wishes it did. Native applications would remove the need for WINE with those applications.
I’d say WordPerfect for Linux but Corel is screwing up WordPerfect. Each version is more like Word. There is a REASON people were buying WordPerfect and not word … idiots!
SQL Server. Maybe an official port of .NET too, but that poses too many problems. It’d be nice if they’d do an open source port (like maybe put serious resources into mono and ensure that it’s always current) but that’s obviously a pipe dream.
“I’ll take… SQL Server”
Ever heard of sybase, which works like a charm on linux and is based on the same code ?
Microsoft SQL and Sybase ASE were the same code base a very long time ago. They are very different now and are not easy replacements for each other. I second the O.P. – MS SQL is one of the very good products that MS makes, but I would love to be able to run it on something other than Windows. Since that will never happen, I’d be tickled if the SQL management apps (Enterprise Manager in 2000 and Management Studio in 2005) worked on Linux (or better yet, OS X). I use these tools daily, so I use Windows. Yes, AquaDataStudio is a fine product, but it doesn’t give me access to many of the MS SQL tools that differentiate it from the competitors.
Well, with sybase on Linux/Unix, you have a decent shell to automate stuff. I’ll take it over Ms Sql server and it’s nice tools on windows any day.
The only important app I can’t find in Linux yet is a good floorplan drawing program. I don’t mean something heavy weight like AutoCad, but rather something that common peons could use. For Windows, I have an old program called “FloorPlan 3D” by Imsisoft (http://imsisoft.com/). I’d love to see that ported to Linux.
running windows apps on linux is seamless.
running a buggy windows app, on a buggy simulation of a buggy OS, which in turn is being run on another buggy OS, and getting it all to work to the satisfaction of the end user is a pretty big ask.
And Novell plans to convince the industry to port these apps how exactly? First of all, none of the vendors who own the products on their list are unaware of the Linux market. It’s not like Novell is going to come along and let them in on the big secret they’ve been missing out on all this time. And why should these vendors listen to Novell when its own Linux future is uncertain. The simple fact is that all those products listed are non-server applications and we all know that Linux has very little market share on the desktop.
And Novell plans to convince the industry to port these apps how exactly? First of all, none of the vendors who own the products on their list are unaware of the Linux market. It’s not like Novell is going to come along and let them in on the big secret they’ve been missing out on all this time. And why should these vendors listen to Novell when its own Linux future is uncertain. The simple fact is that all those products listed are non-server applications and we all know that Linux has very little market share on the desktop.
AutoCAD and Photoshop as desktop applications… Yeah, right. Never mind the workstations and people that REALLY knows what to do with such tools! (rolls eyes…)
Listen, I agree that it would be pretty hard for Novell (or anyone else, as a matter of fact) convince all these software houses to port their wares to Linux but this sort of initiative, backed by Novell, could serve the purpose of gathering information regarding whether jumping aboard the Linux bandwagon would be feasible (and profitable, of course) to them. It could turns out as some sort of free market research for these companies.
Regarding your assertion about the Linux market share on the desktop, it´s probably higher than Apple´s nowadays when you realize that there is a whole world outside the USA borders and that Apple tries to sell their stuff at outrageous prices over there. In other words, makes more sense to target Linux overall than MacOS, which is said as being second in relevance. Spare your words rebutting this because we all know that there are a few pieces missing that needs to be in place before the ISVs starts to deploy Linux versions of their software, but the day will come. You can be sure about that.
EDIT: typos
Edited 2006-01-27 02:05
I would welcome Wine-X with a year subscription and preferrably powerdvd for linux.
powerdvd is so horribly buggy on windows i really don’t see that a version for linux would be worthwhile when xine and even mplayer are just as good (and maybe more stable!)
i do seem to recall that there was a linux version though, not sure, maybe it was just a xine skin….
I know powerdvd isn’t the best app for the job,perhaps nero showtime is better at least on windows.
Furthermore i really like both xine and mplayer,though i wish we had the choice of watching encrypted dvd’s legally on Linux.
I’m a long time Linux user both for home and work where I prefer to run applications natively on Linux instead of on top of Wine. So my list of requests are posted below. I realize porting these applications is up to the individual developers but maybe with Novell’s feedback it will help them understand there is a market for their products in the Linux community.
1. Alias (now acquired by Autodesk): Motionbuilder Pro, Sketchbook Pro, PortfolioWall.
2. Pixologic: ZBrush.
3. Avid: Xpress Pro. I know there’s NLE such as Smoke and Piranha Cinema but the more NLE available from competitors lowers the cost to the end user.
4. Adobe: Premiere Pro, Photoshop CS, After Effects Pro. Well if Adobe can port their entire line that would be great but those are my first three pics.
5. Eyeon: Digital Fusion.
6. Electric Rain: RAVIX a vector render plug-in for highend 3d software such as Maya.
7. Apple: Motion and FCP. While I won’t switch to Apple I do like some of their software applications. They already port Shake so porting other applications shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Macromedia’s tools would also be nice. Corel Draw and WP Office… If my memory serves well, they had a Linux version of WordPerfect, and that was free, some six or eight years ago (WP 7). Autocad.
These folks seem to forget that in Linux they have a true 64-bit and SMP-capable operating system, able to deliver what even the most demanding (should I say bloated? nah, don’t think so) applications need.
I forgot to add that since Autodesk is known for porting their applications to Linux (most recent port was Flame) it’s very possible they will port Motionbuilder Pro to Linux. Otherwise they could use the combined R & D resources of Autodesk and Alias to create a new all in one 3D application. Something which offers the best of Maya, Motionbuilder and 3DSMax.
As for ZBrush, Pixologic has stated they would consider a port if there was sufficient consumer demand. Since studios such as Weta Digital use ZBrush and their pipeline is mostly Linux it is possible that with more studio interest in the product a Linux port may become available in the near future.
Linux isn’t lacking all that much in the software department. Don’t get me wrong–there are some weak spots…but I’m fairly certain that these gaps will be filled over time.
A similar survey on desired HARDWARE support might be a more meaningful undertaking. I’d like to see more hardware vendors release drivers for their products on Linux (either open OR binary-only). While I’m impressed on the breadth of reverse-engineered/OSS drivers made by 3rd parties, many of them are hack jobs at best. Performance tends to be weaker than a native windows version supplied by the manufacturer.
What good is having software, if the hardware in your computer can’t fully leverage its functionality? (Webcams, TV cards, etc.)