OT: Mac vs Win partisanship is unnecessary

[Richard Gaskin]

Richmond wrote:

> "there's such a dearth of software for the platform"; I find that
> hard to accept.

I've been spending a fair amount of time in recent months reading the 
Ubuntu forum, and a fairly common theme I see there is "Where can I find 
an app like <someWindowsAppName> for Linux?"

Of course in most cases there's an answer for that, often for some 
package in the Ubuntu Software Center or almost as conveniently 
accessible.  But sometimes not.

I find the same thing with Mac OS, and to some degree even on Windows. 
Indeed, I suspect that's why most of us are here:  we make software 
because we can't find the one we want already made.

Of the three platforms Rev currently supports, Windows has by far the 
largest variety of software available.   But even there I find many 
opportunities for new products, as I do on Mac.  With the Linux world 
being the younger and least evangelized of the three I find even more 
categories there with either few strong competitors or none at all.

Consider also this tidbit in a blog a couple months ago in 
Computerworld.  While it focuses on Adobe products, there's a message 
there for all software publishers to consider if they're using tools 
that make it as inexpensive to deploy to Linux as Rev does:


--------------- from Computerworld -------------------

Ubuntu wants Adobe, even if Apple doesn't

I recently suggested that, given Apple and Adobe's growing war over iPad 
and iPhone applications, it would make sense for Adobe to move not only 
its end-user applications, but its Creative Suite development stack, to 
Linux. While I don't know if Adobe is considering it, Canonical, the 
company behind Ubuntu Linux, would welcome Adobe.

Canonical marketing manager Gerry Carr told me that "in a recent survey 
we did of the Ubuntu User base where we got 32,000 plus responses, Adobe 
Photoshop as a potential application for Ubuntu got a 3.52 rating out of 
5 being the second most popular potential app after Skype."

That doesn't come as any surprise to me. Photoshop has long topped the 
list of most wanted proprietary programs on Linux users' wish list. You 
may be wondering why this is so since Linux already has GIMP (Gnu Image 
Manipulation Program), which is also a very strong image editing program.

There are several reasons. The first is that Photoshop users tend to be 
Photoshop users first and foremost: the operating system is secondary. 
Another reason is that there's an entire software eco-system of 
Photoshop add-on programs that serious Photoshop users expect to have at 
their beck and call. Last but not least, there are major differences 
between Photoshop's MDI (Multiple Document Interface) and GIMP's SDI 
(Single Document Interface). While GIMP will add support for SDI in GIMP 
2.8, in the meantime, moving from Photoshop to GIMP as your primary 
image-editing platform is very difficult.

Carr added, "More interestingly 12000 people gave suggestions for apps 
we had not suggested...."

<http://blogs.computerworld.com/15991/ubuntu_would_welcome_adobe_to_linux>


--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Rev training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com
  revJournal blog: http://revjournal.com/blog.irv