Can someone tell me what this means?

[Zane H. Healy]

At 4:20 PM -0400 8/11/07, Patrick Finnegan wrote:
>I'd be suprised if people like Adobe wouldn't all of a sudden have a
>large Linux market share if they would just release their various
>software with a Linux version.

At this time they're one of the main reasons I'm still running on a 
Mac.  Though Apple keeps improving on iLife, which gives me another 
reason to stay.  At this point Eudora is probably the key thing 
keeping me on the Mac, though as it has been discontinued, how much 
longer I'll use it is up in the air.

At 5:05 PM -0400 8/11/07, der Mouse wrote:
>It occurs to me that this phrasing may to an extent be putting cause
>and effect the wrong way around: that the sort of person who is
>unwilling to pay for software will (tend to) gravitate to Linux, rather
>than people feeling (or tending to feel) that if it's for Linux it
>therefore should be free.

Interesting point, it also helps explain why I've gravitated away 
from Linux.  I have no problem paying for software, though if I can 
find a freeware solution that will do what I need I'm often happy.  I 
find the attitude of the Linux "community" to be more than a little 
irritating at times.

At 3:16 PM -0700 8/11/07, Chuck Guzis wrote:
>Is that another Apple/Microsoft difference?  Microsoft developers
>spend a lot of money (i.e. paying for MSDN privleges) keeping up to
>date on Windows developments.

To the best of my knowledge the Apple Developer program is no longer 
as affordable as it used to be.  I dropped out after I got married as 
they *significantly* raised the price about that time.  Besides now 
I'm no longer developing software for the Mac, except for the 
occasional Perl script for personal use.

At 5:38 PM -0400 8/11/07, William Donzelli wrote:
>Just an observation:
>
>>  1) The GPL scares a lot of vendors spitless.

Can't say as I blame them.

>  > 2) Linux is, almost by definition, a rolling beta.

Sadly true, however, this is not as bad as it used to be if you're 
running an Enterprise version.

>  > 3) Linux users and admins are the world's worst customers.
>
>These three reasons are pretty much why the mainframe folks can laugh
>justifiably at the Linux crowd.

Depends on where you work.  I know some *VERY* sharp Linux admin's, 
and the users aren't that bad.  Having said that, I wouldn't want to 
be a vendor supporting the company that I work for.

>  > 4) This last will get me flamed, but it's a fact; Linux is a miserable
>>  excuse for a desktop OS, for all the above reasons.  Its sole
>>  justification is that it beats hell out of Windows.
>
>And these days, it is getting hard to even say "beats the hell out
>of". These are not the days of Windows 95 anymore - it is pretty
>stable and easy to use. And the Windows GUI was never all that bad
>after 2.0 (yes, TWO) - it sure "beats the hell out of" some of the
>nightmares seen in the Unix world.
>
>Cripes - I see another Windows/Linux war coming up on the list. I
>better fold up camp...

I think people need to remember that you should use the right OS for 
the right job.  At work, I am responsible for a collection of 
Solaris, Windows 2003, and yes, Linux boxes (I also have to deal with 
HP-UX and AIX on occasion).  My laptop runs Windows, but almost all 
of my work is done on Linux.  As far as I'm concerned my Desktop is 
my VNC session to my Linux workstation, not Windows (I view it as a 
semi-intelligent terminal).

Right now I only have one Linux box at home, it is a very nice Core 2 
Duo system built for Windows gaming, that I've setup to dual boot 
Ubuntu.  I must confess I like most of what I've seen in Ubuntu, and 
the upgrade I did a while back to the latest version went very 
smoothly.  Still that system is rarely turned on, and most of my time 
at home is spent either on Mac OS X, or OpenVMS.  For me, switching 
to Mac OS X meant I no longer needed a Linux box running all the 
time, as I can do most of what I need now on the Mac.

			Zane


-- 
| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet)           | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
|     Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing,    |
|          PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum.         |
|                http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/               |