But that still kind of begs the question about Linux, doesn't it? The NetMarketShare stats peg Linux as bigger than Android by two orders of magnitude, and we've been talking about Linux on the desktop for over a decade. Why isn't the case for apps on emerging platforms like Android and iPhone OS even more compelling for Linux, which has a larger share than both? Is it that companies have tried and failed to sell to the Linux audience, or that they haven't tried at all? If the latter, then surely a lot of money has been on the table, right?
--Chris On May 17, 4:28 pm, Casper Bang <[email protected]> wrote: > On May 17, 9:45 pm, Chris Adamson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > But with Linux so popular, and its users truly willing to pay for > > stuff, what commercial product has ever been a major success on the > > platform? Are there games with Linux versions that have done well? > > It comes down to marked-share and associated financial incentives > doesn't it? The very same arguments you are using were used not long > ago about Android, except that Android has reached critical mass much > faster and now largely shut up its critics. Regarding games, Apple > isn't exactly known to be a gaming platform. But Valve discovered > Apple is now a viable marked and started porting Steam over. They are > also porting it to Linux which is good news considering it's actually > a better gaming platform than Apple's [http://bit.ly/djaxYY]. > > > Occam's Razor says that poor business prospects on the platform, not > > an active conspiracy, is why you don't see Linux clients for DRM- > > constrained products like Netflix movies, Kindle books, etc. > > Yes if you assume the only Linux users are members of the FSF or DeCSS > authors, I can see how you can arrive at that conclusion. Audible.com > is about to release a DRM aware client for Android because there's now > a marked for it. It may not be the first marked to target, but I have > no reason to believe this would be any different with desktop Linux... > and I don't think it's going away regardless of how many "this is the > year of the linux desktop" jokes I hear. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group > athttp://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
