RunRev and Linux

[Richmond Mathewson]

  On 11/04/2010 18:21, Richard Gaskin wrote:
> Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>
>> <snip>
>
> I don't think it's any sort of grand conspiracy, but rather that the 
> cause-and-effect may be exactly backwards from what you suggest:

Hmm; I don't think there is a grand conspiracy - what there may be is an 
inadvertent 'something'.
>
> It seems unlikely that Kevin holds meetings in a shuttered room with a 
> handful of individuals in top hats sitting around smoking Cuban cigars 
> and deciding that fate of the Rev community through hushed voices.

I know this is a bit facetious, but I suddenly had a vision of exactly 
what you described above and laughed myself silly. I wonder
if Kevin smokes at all; he looks far too clean-living for that.
>
> The Linux community has simply thus far failed to gain sufficient 
> market share to warrant much more of Rev's time than it does now.
>
> While there are quite a few disgruntled posts about Linux from time to 
> time, most of them have come from about six people.

Yes; and Peter and I probably make 4 of them . . .  :)
>
> Just to be clear, I'm not saying Rev runs perfectly on Linux, but Rev 
> doesn't run perfectly on Windows or OS X either.  And indeed it seems 
> that the farther you go from the market-leading Linux distro, Ubuntu 
> with Gnome, the more such issues become evident.

I, for one, am perfectly happy to go on developing on a Mac as my 
production is 90% done on that platform: however,
deployment on Linux is my problem. Now, I know for a fact that there are 
a large number of people who use Linux that
directly relate to my main field - lots of what, for want of being 
accused of being a white-ethno-centrist, we might
call "bush schools" in poorer countries where there are buckets of 
second-hand PCs for grabs from Europe and
North America running Linux. In India there are lots of these. Now I 
have developed a program for writing in an extremely
awkward (but culturally significant) writing system (and have a whole 
slew more 'in the pipeline') which I am unable
to deploy on Linux.

So, it seems there are 2 problems here (which may not be the same):

1. The status/standard of the development package on Linux.

2. The ability to deploy standalones built on Windows or Macintosh on Linux.
>
> That said, I don't think this is because RunRev is somehow limiting 
> any individual's input in favor of some imagined cabal.
>
> On the contrary, it seems self-evident that Rev is listening the 
> EVERYONE, in a world where almost half of their money comes from Mac 
> folks and the other half comes from Windows folks, while fewer than a 
> dozen of us here care about Linux.
>
> If you want to see RunRev give Linux more attention, first get the 
> world to give Linux more attention by giving it more attention of your 
> own:
My school runs Ubuntu exclusively and serves up my EFL standalones like 
that.
>
> Evangelize the OS; let vendors know when you want to buy a PC without 
> paying for a copy of Windows you'll be replacing anyway; host or 
> participate in Install Fests; give away CDs to random people on the 
> subway; etc. etc. SpreadUbuntu.com has some helpful evangelism tips.
I, for one, have been pushing Linux like a Colombian drug baron; however 
there is more to things than that: first get them to run
Linux (and here in Eastern Europe there is a steep rise in this) then 
get them to develop using RunRev.

Lots of lawyers, doctors and architects here in Bulgaria running desktop 
Linux rigs - but they are not programmers.

Lots of programmers running Linux and programming in Python and so on.

I have 10 of my pupils (think age range 7 -14) who play around with 
RevMedia at home (mainly on Windows); but, obviously,
cannot deploy standalones, nor have the cash to buy Studio or Enterprise.

Many professionals here run a "split system" with XP and a Linux distro 
on the same machine.
>
> It isn't RunRev's fault that Linux has a 1% desktop market share. 
> That's not a bug Kevin can address - but we can, and we will.
>