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More software companies offering Linux support

Ability to run more applications natively on Linux.

mack

8:57 pm on Dec 4, 2021 (gmt 0)

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As a long term Linux user, I am happy to see more software companies building Linux specific versions of their software. For years if you wanted to use certain applications, you would either need to run them on Windows or sometimes Mac. Occasionally it was possible to run certain applications through Wine or a VM, but from my experience, this always leads to degraded experience. If something was built specifically to run on Windows, it is only going to run as intended if you run it on Windows.

A couple of notable examples of software now fully supported on Linux are "Unreal Engine" and "Davinci Resolve"...
Unreal engine is essentially a game development engine and Davinci Resolve is a high-end video editor.

Clearly, these companies have looked at the marketplace and seen there is a demand for their software on the Linux platform. No company is going to waste time and more importantly money to port their software to a platform where they don't expect to see a return on the investment.

Why is this happening now and should we expect to see more companies following suit (I'm looking at you Adobe)

There is also the flip side to this... Software that was initially created to run exclusively on Linux, and was later released on Windows. In some annoying cases, the main development was then switched to their Windows versions and the Linux versions were all but forgotten. Notable examples are Kdenlive (video Editor) and LMMS (Multimedia Studio). Both of these applications do work fine on Linux, but are better supported on the Windows platform.

I just hope that over the coming years it is going to become more and more common for software to be released on all three major platforms. Do you think this is likely, and why is this happening now?

Mack.

brotherhood of LAN

10:53 pm on Dec 4, 2021 (gmt 0)

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I (very) occasionally play sequels to nostalgic games I played in the late 80s/early 90s, one being Civilization.

As soon as I saw Civ was available on Linux I bought it, part to support the thing and partly so I don't have to boot into another OS. Pure Linux implementation, no Wine.

>I just hope that over the coming years

I hope so too, I feel it would allow more freedom and innovation and in that sense, I'm willing to pay a little more to make it happen.

mack

4:19 pm on Dec 5, 2021 (gmt 0)

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I would certainly be willing to pay for commercial software that was fully compatible. I understand that building for Linux is no easy task, especially when you consider distribution specific issues. I just hope they focus on the more common variants and provide a good implementation there.

I am all for Alternatives and Opensource, but I will be the first to admit there are commercial products out there that would greatly help with productivity.

Mack.

martinibuster

7:37 pm on Dec 5, 2021 (gmt 0)

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Kind of strange that open source OS is supported for servers, the largest OS for mobile phones is open source, a variety of flavors of CMS are open source and even the scripting language that underlies a great deal of the web, PHP, is open source.

But for some reason an open source OS for the desktop isn't a popular choice right now. Strange how that kind of fell behind in the open source movement.

Where does Chromium OS fit into this?

Is it because of a chicken/egg lack of hardware support or software support?

mack

11:56 am on Dec 7, 2021 (gmt 0)

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Is it because of a chicken/egg lack of hardware support or software support?

I would like to think that is a factor in play here and that companies are thinking that providing support will drive customers/users.

In the past software support was an issue, it still is, although to a lesser extent. There is certainly a shift towards supporting Linux. Even Microsoft making Edge compatible with Linux was quite a surprise.

Linux used to cover the basics. Accessing the web, checking email and using office tools were all good to go out of the box. The problem was with specialised software. Photo and video editing for example. As a Windows user, the Adobe suite had you covered through tools like Lightroom, Photoshop and Premier. With Linux, you had to look towards alternatives such as Darktable, Gimp and Kdenlive respectively.

When Blackmagic made Davinci Resolve available on Linux it was quite a game-changer. It was the first time a professional-grade video editing and colour suite was an option on the platform.

It looks as if some companies are trying to break into a market that was untapped by a major player within the Linux ecosystem. It may be a very clever way to gain market share.

Where does Chromium OS fit into this?

I see Chromium as Android on steroids. Linux based, but most users probably don't know this. Like a sealed loop with its own app store. I don't think compatibility will be a consideration to many users.

Mack.