Why Adobe doesn't support Linux systems?

[rakan_dr]

Why Adobe doesn't support Linux systems? The very mysterious question that nobody has answered it yet.

My arguments are these:
First, why not to support Linux although it allows paid software? Some people told me just to go and buy a Mac, if i wanted to work with adobe products. Okay but why to buy a Mac or a Windows license just to work with Adobe products?
If you want to buy a Mac, you need to buy: Mac hardware + Adobe products + MacOSX update for every new release. WE ARE WASTING MONEY!


Second, one person told me that Adobe doesn't support Linux because the people that use it just don't want to pay money. I think this is not so correct.
I'm sure that most "NOT ALL" of the Linux users today had used a CRACKED Windows for a while (sometime years!) but after that they chose to use a Linux distribution. But why? They did that because Linux is simply better than Window$. Let's be honest, Windows and Linux are available for free but people chose to use Linux finally.
Personally I'm more than ready to buy a CS4 license because i only have to pay for it. I'm saving "extra" hardware =>"Good for global warming" Plus the update. So it's not reasonable to not support Linux for that reason.

Third, most of Adobe products users are web developers and designers. Most of the web developers prefer to use Linux (often Ubuntu) as their OS. I know some of the best web developers and designers in world and they prefer to use Ubuntu + VirtualBox( for Adobe products) to work with. Some of them have a Mac and again JUST to make the running of adobe products easier. So it's a big market ;)

I told some people that most web designers and developers prefer to use "L"AMP and again a stress on the "L". They told me that developers and designers prefer to use LAMP on a server and a Mac as a workstation. Again this contradicts my first argument "why to buy a Mac or a Windows license just to work with Adobe products?" The scenario here is like this:
The same computer is used as a workstation and as a TESTING server, the actual hosting is done on a paid hosting.

At the end i concluded that Ubuntu is the best market for web developers and designers! So this question arise:
Why Adobe doesn't support Linux systems?

Hope someone finds an answer :)

Note: I'm sorry if i contradicted my self in some points or anything gone wrong, but it's 2:00 AM in the morning and I'm so sleepy ;)

[linuxguymarshall]

The same argument could be made for any piece of proprietary, non-Linux software. They just don't think there is a large enough market share for linux.

[rakan_dr]

The same argument could be made for any piece of proprietary, non-Linux software. They just don't think there is a large enough market share for linux.

But do you agree with me that it's the best market?

[howefield]

I'm sure that most "NOT ALL" of the Linux users today had used a CRACKED Windows for a while (sometime years!) but after that they chose to use a Linux distribution. But why? They did that because Linux is simply better than Window$. Let's be honest, Windows and Linux are available for free but people chose to use Linux finally.

A bit presumtious of you to accuse most of the posters here of being thieves and pirates ?

[dannytatom]

They just don't think there is a large enough market share for linux.

This is the exact reason, and they've said it multiple times.

[lswb]

linux is somewhere around 1% market share by many estimates, so it's easy to see why Adobe and other for-profit companies make it a lower priority. Even so, Adobe recently released flash for 64bit linux and their latest 32 bit flashplayer seems to have addressed the bugs in their earlier efforts. And their linux pdf reader, though bloated and closed source, is a pretty nice and usaeble product.

They have linux versions of a few other products and have even opensourced the pdf spec. Sure there's a lot more they could do but they are not the worst company out there in this regard.

[xarte]

The other issue IMHO is support. Users don't always know whether the problem is with their operating system or their software, and I think this is amplified with Linux. Check out the Warcraft forums - the endless support issues they have for Win and Mac - add Linux and you've got a tech support nightmare.

Maybe it's not a factor, I don't know, but I could see how it could be.

I'm with you though - I love Adobe and I'd be ecstatic if I could run their products on Linux. I've recently bought Corel Painter Essentials 4 and will try running that on WINE, fingers crossed.

I think in the future it WILL change as the low-cost laptops currently shipping with Linux are introducing a lot of people to the OS (I hope it's a positive experience!) so the market is going to grow, especially if Linux developers keep their heads screwed on the right way and continue to give us such a lovely simple, secure and streamlined operating system.

[bashveank]

It's a vicious cycle, Adobe wont write Linux software because the design firms that will pay big bucks for software are on the Mac because of the design software that is available.

[Bölvaður]

From my experience big software companies target other big companies, not public, as their main market.
It is the chicken and the egg problem with that market. The market uses macs because of the good adobe software for it and adobe makes products for macs because there are customers for that platform.


It is true that the logical direction would be to make all go over to linux, and adobe could look at it as a package.
But it will probably not happen because of other problems that might pop up because of it.

They say that the market in capitalist system will make the fastest pace innovation and cost effective means... that is not true, but it doesnt mean we can ignore the fact that we never do anything in cost effective way or even smart way at all ;)
Just love life.

[chucky chuckaluck]

But do you agree with me that it's the best market?

the best market is the biggest one. that would exclude linux.

[Paqman]

At the end i concluded that Ubuntu is the best market for web developers and designers!

Devs maybe, but Ubuntu (or Linux in general) is not a very good platform for web design at all. You can get by, but it's a struggle compared to Windows or Mac. We just don't have good native apps for web design.

[dannytatom]

It's a vicious cycle, Adobe wont write Linux software because the design firms that will pay big bucks for software are on the Mac because of the design software that is available.


Along with that, a lot of designers would use linux (increasing marketshare) if Adobe would write software for Linux. But Adobe won't release their software because the marketshare is too small.

:(

[Skripka]

It's a vicious cycle, Adobe wont write Linux software because the design firms that will pay big bucks for software are on the Mac because of the design software that is available.

Well add to the fact that Apple, whatever else their faults, makes BEAUTIFUL displays (in terms of color output)--in comparison, Linux can barely color manage at all on an application level basis much less a system wide basis.


I'd like Abode to support Linux, or at least write their installers for their CS such that they'd run on Wine. Most Adobe CS apps will run under Wine (if you avoid using the installer, as said installer crashes)--the problem is the installer they use.

[rakan_dr]

Thanks guys,
but after i read your comments i figured out that we are all agreed that "Linux is the best market for web developers and designers" for the same reasons that i meantioned.
We have only to buy the CS bundle! + All developers prefers Linux beacuse it suits thier needs completly. At the end, most of the Linux users are the developers!!! Most of the great (web or software) developers just use Linux, beacuse it understands thier needs and the community it self is made from developers ;)

[mangar]

I don't recall the source, but I remember the argument:
Adobe did a market research, and they found out that having a Linux version will not allow them to sell more of their products, rather, move existing costumers from one platform to another, therefore, the extra overhead will not give them any extra revenue, and as such does not worth the effort.

In shorter short - paying 50$ for a copy of Windows, or whatever that is the cost for a Mac is not a problem that adobe, with its 600$-a-piece-products, feels it needs to address.

[Vince4Amy]

I have licensed and paid for copies of Windows so what you said in the first post was rude. Anyway Adobe have been supporting Linux more in the past few months.

Dreamweaver, Fireworks & Flash work great in WINE for me and they should for most people if they don't mind running WINE, otherwise there's virtual box.

Please tell me what Window$ is? I thought it was Windows.

[geoken]

Thanks guys,
but after i read your comments i figured out that we are all agreed that "Linux is the best market for web developers and designers" for the same reasons that i meantioned.
We have only to buy the CS bundle! + All developers prefers Linux beacuse it suits thier needs completly. At the end, most of the Linux users are the developers!!! Most of the great (web or software) developers just use Linux, beacuse it understands thier needs and the community it self is made from developers ;)

No, were not all agreed. In fact I think most people disagreed with you.

Furthermore, I think you haven't spent a significant amount of time coding for other platforms if you think it's significantly easier to code for/on Linux.

[MikeTheC]

As others have said, we're not all Windows pirates on this board. Speaking for myself, I've been a Mac user since 1986, and I've also built PCs over the years for which I've bought a couple copies of Windows (95, ME, XP), and with my present main computer, I bought it and it came with Vista.

I have used Adobe's products since the 1980s, and go back further to when Aldus made PageMaker. I have been around long enough to see the whole DTP industry grow up and mature; and sadly of late it's become very, very commoditized. Adobe, as others have already pointed out, is not the worst company out there, but they are heading in a direction presently that concerns me. So has Quark, producer of a DTP program which for years was my mainstay.

It's not about it being up to Adobe to support Linux. It's about the Linux community supporting that range of functionality and maybe, one day, supplanting Adobe. And as for market share, as Linux continues to make in-roads around the world in the desktop space, it will eventually have a very compelling market share. The question is, will Adobe find it a desirable platform to support or not?

[SunnyRabbiera]

As others have said, we're not all Windows pirates on this board.

Yeh but the way adobe charges for software in a bad economy ($900 for software is BS) I side with the pirates.

[Skripka]

Yeh but the way adobe charges for software in a bad economy ($900 for software is BS) I side with the pirates.

Their prices were that before the econ problems of late. You think Adobe charging $900 is bad--look at the prices of full versions of Maya or Autocad.

[dannytatom]

look at the prices of full versions of Maya

As much as I hate their prices, their software is meant for studios that can afford it. They have student discounts (pretty good ones, too) and the personal learning edition that's free.

[rakan_dr]

I'm so sorry guys, i didn't mean to call you "ALL" pirates. Please don't think about it like this, i was just trying to say that Windows and Linux are availabe for free but people finally chose Linux. So please forget about that rude sentence :(

[igknighted]

It's not that most people pirate windows, rather most adobe cs2/3/4 users pirated their adobe product. I know only one person of the many adobe users I know that actually purchased it, and that was at a significantly reduced academic price.

The only group that adobe cares about is the larger design shops that buy tons of licenses. If they hear from them that they want to use CS4 on linux instead of Mac/PC, then I bet we would see one very soon. But your "typical" home user, or freelance designer is (a) likely not to spend the money anyways, and (b) a tiny drop in the bucket even if they all did buy it, so adobe doesn't care what they want.

[rakan_dr]

Read jedimind's comment, i think it's really logical:
http://rakblog.com/2008/12/15/why-adobe-doesnt-support-linux-systems/

[rakan_dr]

It's not that most people pirate windows, rather most adobe cs2/3/4 users pirated their adobe product. I know only one person of the many adobe users I know that actually purchased it, and that was at a significantly reduced academic price.

The only group that adobe cares about is the larger design shops that buy tons of licenses. If they hear from them that they want to use CS4 on linux instead of Mac/PC, then I bet we would see one very soon. But your "typical" home user, or freelance designer is (a) likely not to spend the money anyways, and (b) a tiny drop in the bucket even if they all did buy it, so adobe doesn't care what they want.

can i post your reply as a comment in the article using your name??

http://rakblog.com/2008/12/15/why-adobe-doesnt-support-linux-systems