On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 10:42:59AM +0200, Maxim Kovgan wrote: > hi, Amichai. > Sorry... got carried away - started yesterday sending this today :) > Thanks for bringing this interesting subject to this list, this > "design" market behaves very much like audio/music making market: > - size of the market is what can be fairly called "narrow niche", so > sustainable income (business) cannot be done immediately by selling > products to "anybody" on the street. > - problems the market is facing are very computationally expensive > and non-trivial, complex - thus requiring very highly skilled (i.e. > expensive) people to implement and perfect
I got the impression that it's the other way around, with plenty of small-time freelancers. > > The result of this "setting" is: very few big players providing > solutions, and relatively "high prices" in LAYMAN terms. > This "layman" comes to products of this market usually without the > intent to make money, so a couple of thousands of dollars for license > is expensive for it. > > My speculation follows, but in short: I don't see how open/free tools > can give solution for items 3 and 4 in the following list, and 2 is > also a very tough one to handle. > > Pleas,for a moment, relieve your mind off the ethical side of free > software, and ideals :), think "business" (with speculations of > course) > > BIG companies INVEST their own time (=money) in "open source" and > "free" software. > Not because they like to hug trees and raise pink unicorns or ponies > (sorry, a father of a couple of daughters is talking) > They do it mainly because it saves them $$$ and brings them quicker to > market (*usually* internally, BTW) > > free+open solutions have apparent value and potential for *wide* > markets ("consumer" grade). > e.g. every company has operations, infrastructure and support needs, > every one needs operating system to run their own computers. > > Thus, in these areas, sharing code/knowledge with other companies > saves you much more visible amounts of expenses. > This is why in the area of IT/OPS the free solutions thrive, and this > is why Android (not purely free linux, yet linux) is *the most > widespread* OS. > > My guess is that the German guy you saw using free tools has probably > worked on digital only, with small business, this is doable, but less > convenient. You've got to start somewhere. > > > Below is just a list of "state of the things" (subjective, IMHO, speculative) > Let's see how it can be "attacked": > > 1. unified workflow > Most of adobe tools give the same user experience, this makes it very > easy to jump between the tools > Free tools currently have a very high variability in the user > experience: Scribus, inkscape, GIMP, blender. > > 2. industry standard == hardware support > multitude of hardware vendors supporting their software (drivers for > plotters, color profiles for displays, calibration tools, PRO cameras, > sketching input devices, etc.) > Adobe tools know how to work with "big bad printing press" devices. > yes, GIMP|inkscape support wacom tablets, but color stuff and output > hardware - not sure it does... Can anybody give some actual facts here? For instance: https://lwn.net/Articles/672138/ > > 3. NOT really expensive directly > > By "directly" I mean - what you pay for a license to run this "evil" > proprietary software vs. what you get back. > I don't have real data on design shops - what are their expenses, how > much they charge, but my guess is the software cost does not limit > them. > And the BIGGER the shop - the less those costs affect the price, so > the customers don't really suffer. Still, not everybody works for those larger companies. > > > 4. Skill/knowledge transfer, certifications, support, easy to find users > (smells like there should be a word for this :) ) > This is the "vicious circle" :), very important for businesses: > - usage process is streamlined, easy and known to all > - People know how to use the tools, and they can teach others, so you > can on-board your employees by passing them official or in-house > tooling certification, or require that certification from candidates > - commercial support and integrators exist, and support you (they > often are the ones that provide you licenses for even cheaper price) > > On the other hand: If you're using a tool that only has community > support, and resolving a bug involves undetermined amount of time, it > is a "no go" situation. > The training often costs more than license, so called "invisible" > cost: less training = less downtime, more value. If there are enough users, there should also be commercial support. But then again I wonder: just how good is that commercial support? > > 5. DRM > Adobe tools support DRM, this is something design shops/publishers often WANT. > This is ... against freedom, and free tools, especially FSF based > won't ever support this. Can you give examples of where this is actually used? -- Tzafrir Cohen | tzaf...@jabber.org | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il | | a Mutt's tzaf...@cohens.org.il | | best tzaf...@debian.org | | friend _______________________________________________ Haifux mailing list Haifux@haifux.org http://haifux.org/mailman/listinfo/haifux