Jose' Matos wrote:
On Sunday 21 May 2006 16:21, Bo Peng wrote:
This is unlikely the case, but I would not be surprised either,
considering the dominance of the windows system.
We have then to consider what is the usage of windows by the lyx target
users. It is not an easy computation at all. :-)
Bo
I am not sure exactly what Jose's remark is pointing out. Why?
LyX would not de-emphasize equation handling in response to an
increase in humanities academia or fiction book writers would it?
I can't see the LyX developing community accomodating a large
influx of Windows users by re-assessing goal priorities.
The older generation of university latex users are fixed into
mostly using Emacs or Vim which are both free. The newer generation
may elect to use Lyx because on average they are less technically
competent with *nix and would like a more gradual learning curve.
Out of 100 computer users, at least 90% are Windows users. LyX
for windows is a new free platform for them; an alternative to
the expensive WordPerfect, MS Office suites as well as SWP. So
they are the largest potential population to convert to LyX, as
they are most likely not habituated to an alternative. I don't
think it matters if fewer new Windows LyX users use equations
when compared to new *nix users, or what particular use Windows
users put Lyx to. Windows users are more likely to use LyX for
there Open Source software choice because of the more gradual
learning curve in comparison to *nix users who will have had a
greater exposure to alternative Open Source typesetters. What is
the point of quantifying it when LyX dev. won't cater to it anyway?
> We have then to consider what is the usage of windows by the lyx
> target users.
I doubt if you mean dual downloads of Linux and Windows LyX since
that would be of little significance. I think there is better
reason to correlate LyX usage with Windows downloads since there
are far fewer or more difficult free programs for Windows users in
comparison to what is available to *nix LyX users. As you can see
I tried to imagine what you meant but didn't grasp your point. For
instance Kile will run natively on Linux and perhaps KDE Cygwin
but Windows users aren't going to install the added Cygwin OS to
get KDE in order to obtain Kile, but this is easy on Linux.
10,000 downloads for WinLyX 1.3.7 and 1.4.1 compared to say 7,000
downloads for Mac and various Linux and Unix flavors combined
doesn't require much interpretation about where the new user base
is originating. There is a latent *nix user base which doesn't
upgrade with new releases which will contribute to the overall
current usage of LyX, Linux vs. Windows, but this will dwindle,
and in a couple of years there will be Windows users who don't
upgrade to the newest version of LyX, to match this latency factor.
A LyX download by a Linux user has to compete with other free
choices, while a LyX download by a Windows user indicates not
wanting to pay for other costly and/or harder to learn choices.
Both WinLyx and LinLyx will suffer resistance from supervisors
or publishers who want submissions in Word.
Regards,
Stephen
