Re: MicroImages Leaving LINUX
On Tue, Nov 13, 2007 at 04:23:32PM -0500, Gene Kersey wrote:
> Mr Hocevar:
>
> This is my first time communicating with anyone in the Linux
> community, so please forgive me if I have breached some sort of
> protocol. I have been a Linux dabbler, user and supporter for some
> time. One of the developments I have noticed with pleasure over time
> is the increasing number of, for lack of a better word, enterprise
> quality Linux programs. Because of my profession, and my desire to
> set up my own company after retirement next year, I have been
> particularly aware of developments in the GIS realm. One of the few
> professional level, commercial GIS suites available for Linux has been
> MicroImages "MIPs".
Just out of curiosity, what would you estimate is the userbase size:
10's, 100's, 1000's of users? And its total revenue potential? What I am
getting at is the ROI for them to spend the extra effort, They may be a
10 person company. Just my observation. Which is why this[0] maybe an
interesting idea.
> Basically, they decided in the last few days to no longer support
> Linux. I was told that they sat down and analyzed the traffic on
> their website over time and saw that Linux downloads were few.
Information about Free operating systems is not as mearsurable as for
their proprietary counterparts. Someone may copy a download to 1000
computers behind a firewall on a private network. And most software
requires no access key and can not be counted based upon 'downloads'
with the exception of maybe something like Firefox. Plus, most Free OS
users do not use/need traditional 'support', we have irc, mailing lists,
etc. And there are now commercial 'enterprise' support from IBM,
Canonical, etc. if someone needs it. And as long as a company follows
LSB and FHS (like Debian does), the software should have minimal issue
between distros and I'm sure they could get assistance from beta tester
to address any issue that come up.
>
> I then observed that in writing for OS/X they were essentially writing
> to UNIX/Linux and Solaris, although I allowed that Solaris software
> also historically tended to be expensive.
But now there is OpenSolaris.
And if they target OS/X which is related to BSD and BSDs can run Linux
software, so that would 'kill 2 birds with one stone' unless they go for
'native osx' widets.
hope that explains,
-k
[0] http://www.linux.com/feature/120621
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