Comments on: Plugging the Linux holes

Major application developers like Adobe and Intuit have yet to show much enthusiasm for Linux. Backers say if they wait too long, "good enough" open-source alternatives will emerge.

Eh...

If you want Photoshop and Adobe won't play ball, run up a copy of The GIMP. If Intuit don't want to port Quicken, run up GnuCash.

I think most users will be pleasantly surprised by both - and certainly, in the case of GnuCash, you can read in all your Quicken history to carry on where you left off.

Linux has really come on in leaps and bounds over the last year. Good quality, and my total software acquisition cost so far this year is less than $40 (the cost of a book Fedora was bundled with).

Ian W. (running Fedora FC1)

[George Cole]

pleasantly surprised

http://www.analogstereo.com/vauxhall_corsa_owners_manual.htm

One could argue Adobe doesn't do much for the Windows platform either

I'm weary of fighting with the beast called Adobe Acrobat. Writer doesn't work with terminal server, is slow, and inconsistent.

There's more than you think

The two big apps mentioned in the article that are 'missing' are PhotoShop and Quicken. I find it amusing that the article does mention that there are the GIMP and GNUcash. Hmm, sounds like those holes have been plugged. The GIMP is very usable at least for Web Development. I am not sure about print quality work. GNUcash as has already been mentioned works with Quicken files to get you up and running with all your transactions in place. GNUcash is not a bad application, the article seems to downplay its usefullness for some reason though. It has the odd bug and quirks but it is stable and usable.

The biggest hole that I have encountered is that there is no production quality vector graphic application like Illustrator. There are some promising projects like Sketch and Karbon14 but they aren't there yet.

This article should have been presented in an unbiased way and unfortunately it is fairly typical that it does not. There are lots of Open Source applications out there. There are even niche apps, you just have to find them. This is one of the biggest hurdles, getting exposure for an up-and-coming Open Source application.

I have written to Intuit to ask/beg them to develop Linux versions of their applications. I am even willing to pay for them... gasp! To date they have never once replied to me. Yes Closed-Source vendors, take heed, there are some of us that would be willing to shell out hard cash for your product if you made it. We are not all Open Source zealots. However, the longer these companies wait the more Open Source applications there are to fill up these holes.

[Just Larry]

Agreed

Many times I've written to both software and hardware developers asking them to provide, for sale or otherwise, a Linux port of their software. Only one had replied, and their answer was no. Since their product was more a luxury than a necessity, I returned it for a refund and then emailed that I had done so. I told them I would not support their endeavors to ignore the growing Linux user base. I made my actions public knowledge (Usenet), asking other Linux users to boycot the developer.

They have since produced an alpha-test Linux release.

Absolutely, closed-sourse NBM developers need to take notice that Linux and BSD are not faltering any longer. Their foot-dragging won't save them a place in the Linux market; there are others who are willing and obviously able to fill in those gaps.