triptoe
August 13th, 2007, 06:28 AM
Personally I feel that the #1 drawback to adopting linux isn't hardware issues but software. You can choose to buy hardware that works with linux and is compatible and most of the time it will be just as good as other more proprietary choices. But what you can't do is always use software that you may need, and cannot fall back to using some open source alternative.
And if software is really the #1 drawback to linux adoption it follows that Microsoft's API's are the greatest threat ... since if developers were using the same free API's that they were on linux, like Eclipse... then there wouldn't be a question about software since it would most likely port across the platforms seamlessly.
So is software the greatest setback?
Is there anything that can be done to improve free API's ? Is Eclipse the best that we will get and is it good enough?
Can anything be done to make Opengl + SDL a better alternative and easier for developers than directx ?
Enemies to linux adoption:
1. Software that works with windows but not with linux... or entirely or as well
2. hardware, especially 3rd party hardware devices that need drivers whose vendors have not given specifications for linux developers to write them
3. proprietary formats that lock people in, such as watching dvd's (somewhat easy to get around but perhaps illegal) and office formats such as microsofts offices proprietary ones
4. Last but not necessarily least, the problem of microsoft proprietary API's (such as Directx) which encourage developers to develop and be unable or not as easy to port (like if they used GPL ) . This is one of the main barriers to gaming for instance because games can't be ported as easy and aren't as playable.
5. piracy . its funny how this actually works out in microsofts favor, but basically if it wasn't for piracy there would be no alternative to those who could not afford or were willing to spend the money and they thereforew would be using a free alternative like linux
And if software is really the #1 drawback to linux adoption it follows that Microsoft's API's are the greatest threat ... since if developers were using the same free API's that they were on linux, like Eclipse... then there wouldn't be a question about software since it would most likely port across the platforms seamlessly.
So is software the greatest setback?
Is there anything that can be done to improve free API's ? Is Eclipse the best that we will get and is it good enough?
Can anything be done to make Opengl + SDL a better alternative and easier for developers than directx ?
Enemies to linux adoption:
1. Software that works with windows but not with linux... or entirely or as well
2. hardware, especially 3rd party hardware devices that need drivers whose vendors have not given specifications for linux developers to write them
3. proprietary formats that lock people in, such as watching dvd's (somewhat easy to get around but perhaps illegal) and office formats such as microsofts offices proprietary ones
4. Last but not necessarily least, the problem of microsoft proprietary API's (such as Directx) which encourage developers to develop and be unable or not as easy to port (like if they used GPL ) . This is one of the main barriers to gaming for instance because games can't be ported as easy and aren't as playable.
5. piracy . its funny how this actually works out in microsofts favor, but basically if it wasn't for piracy there would be no alternative to those who could not afford or were willing to spend the money and they thereforew would be using a free alternative like linux