Windows developers can now port Visual Basic applications to Linux without modifying their code, using an open source project backed by Novell. The Mono project has built a compiler that lets developers code using Visual Basic inside Visual Studio or other preferred tools environments and run the Visual Basic code on non-Windows platforms without the time and cost of modification.
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Member since:2005-07-12
It would be nice if you back up your statements with some evidence.
Where are all the 3rd party software apps on linux?
I use linux as well but the market is very, very small compared to Windows.
It actually seems like Windows developers don't care much about crossplatform software.
Member since:2005-07-06
question is, what do you define as third party when it comes to linux? stuff not supplied with a distro? stuff not made by open source groups? that you have to pay for it?
because if you look at it one way, most everything that makes up your average distro is a collection of third party software running on top of the linux kernel.
Member since:2005-07-08
Where are all the 3rd party software apps on linux?
There aren't very many of what you would traditionally call "third-party" software products for Linux. However, the philosophy of free software is that the vast majority of mass market software (applications as well as servers) are commodities. The third-party space in the Windows ecosystem is artificially large due to the closed platform. End-users and corporations are forced to pay extra for basic functionality that most end-users and corporations need.
If you need something unique for a niche or custom solution, you should have to pay for it. There's simply no more economical pay to provide this functionality. But everyone needs a word processor, and most developers need an IDE. They should come with your software platform, included in whatever price you pay if you buy a commercial OS, because they are basic necessities. Basic necessities should be "first party," and that's why there aren't so many third part applications for Linux.
It actually seems like Windows developers don't care much about crossplatform software.
Sometimes it seems like Windows developers don't care about much of anything that's important to users. What goes around (eventually) comes around.
Member since:
2005-07-08
You're totally right, of course. However, the tide has shifted just enough over the course of the past five years to change the way the IT industry evaluates software and development solutions. IT is now conscious of the MS lock-in and attempts to avoid adding new MS API dependencies wherever a practical alternative exists. This is why Windows users will never experience the full capabilities of Vista. Many of those nifty APIs will be left largely unused for lack of an open and portable implementation.
Today's reality is that there are two kinds of libraries: those with open implementations and those which fail to achieve much market penetration. Yesterday's libraries will be around for a long time, however, and it unfortunately falls on the OSS community to provide a migration path for those that require them.