[clug] retail software

Adam Thomas adam.lloyd at gmail.com
Tue Nov 4 23:22:17 GMT 2008


On Wed, Nov 05, 2008 at 09:04:39AM +1100, David Cottrill wrote:
> I work for a retail software company that is rapidly porting all its
> Windows/Mac programs to Linux.
> The programs cover pretty much the entire spectrum of applications - from
> Asterisk to Audacity to VLC.
> 
> What I've been wondering is: how many of you would be willing to install
> such things. As a rule the software is far easier to use than the standard
> open source alternative and with only a few (significant) exceptions it
> works better.

Currently my software needs are well taken care of by the FOSS
community. Having said that, I can see great benefits to having a
box-on-the-shelf software package which provides Linux binaries. 

There are a few things which would make the software more attractive.

Does/will the software use open/documented standards for protocols, 
file formats and interface toolkits? 

What would be the upgrade policy? eg. minor and security patches are
free but major releases require buying a new boxed version.

Does the software provide open and documented APIs so developers can 
create open source tools or plugins? Would the company promote and
support such efforts?

> 
> David
> -- 
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> linux at lists.samba.org
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