[clug] retail software
Ian Bardsley
ifb777 at tpg.com.au
Wed Nov 5 04:06:07 GMT 2008
Hi David
I think that there probably is a small market for retail packaged
software written for the linux platform but only where there are gaps in
the availability of functional FOSS software. For example, in the area
of video processing software, linux is quite weak and although there are
a myriad of FOSS packages out there that will enable a user to do
anything they want they are in general incomplete and/or badly
documented and a user needs to use avariety of tools to achieve an outcome.
I recently wanted to send a brief video message to some former army
comrades attending a re-union in the UK that I was unable to attend in
person. To achieve this, I ended up using 5 different FOSS packages and
spent several hours to cobble together a 3 minute clip with an
introduction, some background music, my video message and a couple of
still images and convert the whole lot into .WMV format that my post 60
yo comrades would be able to view using Media Player on a notebook.
Had I been able to go to "Hardly Normal" or somewhere and buy a
comprehensive piece of software say like VideoStudio that would run on
my linux only PCs, I would have done.
FOSS software works for me in 99% of cases and I don't find mainstream
FOSS apps difficult to use. The only thing that I see with commercial
software is that in general, the GUI is prettier than the open source
alternative but for my level of usage, I dont see any functionality
differences, you just adapt.
HIH
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.
>
> David
>
--
*Ian Bardsley*
Phone: +61 0423 195 927 (mobile only)
E-mail: ifb777 at tpg.com.au <mailto:ifb777 at tpg.com.au>
Web: http://ozybard.homeip.net/fridgedoor
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