Linux deployment: never a better time

Thu May 10 11:52:34 EDT 2012

This got a bit long (not the first time with my posts here) - sorry 
about that, but if you can spare a moment to read it I hope you'll find 
it rewarding:

I just got back from attending the first two days of the Ubuntu 
Developer Summit (UDS), held in Oakland this time.

As you may know, Ubuntu is released every six months, and right after 
each release they hold UDS to plan the priorities and workflow to 
deliver the next version. It's held in a different city each time, and 
it's rare that they're in California so I couldn't pass it up. So glad I 
went - an amazing time there meeting so may of the folks who make Ubuntu 
happen.

Most of my time was devoted to an interesting set of sessions revolving 
around outreach to developers to encourage them to deploy to the Ubuntu 
Software Center, similar to the Mac app store but it's been in Ubuntu 
much longer. This is a key area the team is focusing on over the coming 
year, and the scope of enhancements they're planning for both the 
Software Center itself and the submission process for it is very impressive.

I've signed up to assist them with some of those efforts, and for us 
LiveCoders getting our apps on Linux is easier than for most other devs 
anyaway, so I see this as a very fortuitous opportunity for your apps to 
expand their audience to another 20+million users.

A little background on where things are going:

For Linux to grow beyond it's current 3% it needs two things:  OEMs 
shipping more computers with Linux preinstalled, and more apps to expand 
the scope of things people can do on the platform.

I spoke briefly with Canonical CEO Jane Silber about the OEM side of 
things, and while the company isn't in a position yet to announce 
specific bundling agreements she indicated that there are a variety of 
such negotiations happening.  Indeed we've been seeing new announcements 
from Canonical on that front almost every quarter over the last couple 
years with machines from Acer, Asus, and others in markets from Taiwan 
to Italy and more.

In one of the plenary presentations at UDS, Canonical's Chris Kenyon 
noted this about OEMs:

     Between 8 and 10 million Ubuntu units shipped ‘last year’,
     equating to around 7.5 billion dollars worth of hardware sales.
     That figure, Kenyon expects, will double to 18 million ‘next year’
     which, he says, relates to some 5% of the world-wide PC market.
<http://omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/05/ubuntu-to-ship-on-5-of-all-pcs-sold-next-year/>

Even if much of the current focus is on markets outside the US, this 
bodes well for establishing a role for Linux as an option for computer 
manufacturers beyond anything we've seen to date.

And on the home front, at UDS Dell was showing off their nifty new XPS 
13 model, targeted at developers with Ubuntu 12.04 preinstalled:
<http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/255220/new_from_dell_an_ubuntu_linux_laptop_targeting_developers.html>

On the software side of things, Richard Hilleman of Electronic Arts gave 
a presentation at UDS yesterday in which he announced that EA is now 
shipping two games in the Ubuntu Software Center with more to come:
<http://omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/05/ea-delivers-talk-at-ubuntu-developer-summit/>

He noted, "We have always been a platform agnostic company" - he sounds 
like one of us LiveCoders. :)

And last week we got word from the folks at Valve that at long last 
Steam is coming to Linux:
<http://omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/04/valve-linux-steam-client/>

Beyond the desktop, we're also seeing Ubuntu moving into completely new 
and innovative areas like this mobile-desktop hybrid expected to ship on 
a dual-core phone before the end of this year:
<http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/24/ubuntu-for-android-hands-on/>

The running joke in the Linux world for most of its 20-year history is 
that "Next year is the year of Linux on the desktop" - they've been 
saying that for every one of the last 20 years. :)

And sure enough, I don't expect Ubuntu or any flavor of Linux to take 
over the entire world anytime soon.

But this year we're seeing some significant shifts in the landscape, 
things we've never seen before, with hardware manufacturers and software 
vendors jumping on board.

While I don't expect Linux to be the platform that brings in the 
majority of revenue for LiveCode developers, when we consider the 
relative ease for us to deploy to Linux it may well match the ROI of 
others you're currently deploying to.

So here's where I'm going with all of this:

LiveCode developers make a lot of great apps that add value to the 
platforms you deploy to, and Linux is a platform hungry for apps.

A great many people at Canonical are focused on making it as easy as 
they can to get your apps into their Ubuntu Software Center, and as a 
contributor to that effort I'd like to help you do that.

Every new platform we LiveCoders deploy to has its own unique 
challenges, and most of you have never used Linux before so I'm sure 
it's mystifying and may even seem daunting, just as it was for those of 
you who use Macs to begin working with Windows.

I'd like to help you get started with Linux if I can.

Being mindful of the bandwidth on this list, I'd like to encourage any 
of you interested in exploring Linux to join the discussion in the Linux 
section of the LiveCode forums:
<http://forums.runrev.com/viewforum.php?f=20>

Let's take a good look at what would be required to make your app run as 
beautifully on Linux as it does on Mac and Windows.

Please feel free to post any and all questions about using or deploying 
to Linux in that forum.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  I look forward to your posts 
in the forums.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv