Adobe readies version 7 of Acrobat Reader for Linux/UNIX. finally, an update after languishing 2 versions behind! replacing software that looks and works like its years out of date!
Nero releases a Linux version of their oh-so-popular software for Linux.
the ISV's are coming! the ISV's are coming! hooray!
so i download these bits of software, hoping for the best. after playing with them i feel let down. why?
KPDF looks better than AcroRead7 and even competes for rendering speed on most of my PDFs. AcroRead7 has more rendering features (e.g. forms) and better rendering performance, but otherwise it's a shameful piece of software. if you ever want to see what not to do in a GUI, download AcroRead7 for Linux and explore it's "interface". glaring, horrific mistakes are to be found everywhere.
then there's NeroLinux, which K3B utterly takes to school. K3B is generally faster, has more features and looks better. bah.
now we have a really odd situation here. the ISVs are starting to lumber into Linux Land with their closed source software, something we've been hoping would start happening for a few years now. but their offerings are currently subpar, and i doubt they'll see huge adoption rates because of this. especially as the Free Software alternatives keep getting better and better. they are entering a market as second-movers (or worse) and seem to be doing so somewhat blindly.
this presents us (the Open Source desktop community) with a conundrum. if the ISVs don't see an ROI in the form of user base adoption, why should they bother? if all they get is negative press, why not slink back to WinLand and their MacDaddy where the glossy fan-mags will be happy to give them 4 and 5 star reviews?
obviously, these new comers aren't familiar with how to develop for our platform. and they are making some really questionable choices right out of the gate. this is probably not because their developers suck, but because they don't have the experience necessary to do the work well.
somehow a bridge needs to built between the ISVs who are arriving at our tables and the community of developers who actually know how to do this stuff properly. we need to have wage-slave appropriate documentation (which is radically different than enthusiast-appropriate documentation) and better support for ISVs who need to work in semi-secrecy prior to product launch. we don't have either of these things. for shame!
in a perfect world, the ISVs would pitch us some manpower (or funds to finance the manpower) to create these things. in a perfect world, we'd round up as many of these people as possible into a single room and create an "ISV's club" where they can harness the accrued knowledge and expertise of those in the community right now to get these bridges built.
and why should they care to do this? because if they don't, their software is going to keep arriving DOA on Linux. no matter how big the Linux desktop market grows they'll never be able to tap into it to its full potential unless the software quality improves. the ISVs who will make their mark in the maturing Open Source desktop market will be those who make the necessary investments. it won't take much, but without it they won't get much either.
we have a vested interested in this as well, because their software (if done well) will make our platforms much more interesting (and in some cases, possible to use at all) for the larger, global desktop market. it's also a potential well of new development talent and a lot of useful feedback.
we have two groups who have mutually beneficial motivations here. now the question is: can we make it work culturally?
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4 comments:
There is probably a way, and believe it or not it may come out of uproars like that OSNews and bounties thing recently. Bounties are a very, very, very bad way of funding things and further development. I'm all for investment in KDE, but bounties turn the motivations for open source development upside down. I'd hate to see them on a large scale - in fact the project would probably die. I digress slightly though.
What would probably be required is a commercial arm of KDE that would commit to using and showcasing KDE's technology. By that I mean Kolab and not replacing it with Groupwise or something else, using Konqueror and not slapping Firefox or other perceived fashionable open source apps over the top of it - the whole show in essence. This would allow it to give really direct feedback on what improvements are required (from people directly in the field in many cases), direct those improvements on documentation and development best-practice for ISVs and developers and fund itself through some commercial activity. It would also commit itself to developing within KDE's release cycle so it could give quality feedback and improvements. As KDE releases major versions every six months it would release a version fully utilising that technology. No compromises. Although it would need to fund itself through commercial activity (no, several million of VC funding doesn't count - open source has been there and got the T-shirt, or several) it would also need to be non-profit so it can plough most of its resources back into the KDE project to get that cycle of improvement going. Although it may possibly fund some developers, it must not throw money around the shop to discourage those vital people who are working on KDE in their spare time. No I'm not describing a fork or another KDE League here, but something fairly tightly integrated with the KDE project itself.
Essentially, it would release a whole OS called KDE using KDE technology fully (or KSE? - K Server Environment? - don't know), probably based on Debian or some, or all, of the Kalyxo or Kubuntu work. A whole OS called KDE?! Yes. Ordinary people in the world don't see a desktop environment as one component of the whole system - to them it *is* the system. They're not like us I'm afraid, and when I first started with Linux and open source software it took some getting used to for me.
All this probably sounds like a good idea to most people, and might even get some people excited. Unfortunately, nothing like that comes for free. Part of the OSNews uproar was about the fact that if you're going to push open source software into the business arena and get people and ISVs to develop for it the rules of the game change somewhat (the desktop it is slightly different beast). Regardless of whether you're giving up your spare time, you have to find a way of getting enough investment in to make the necessary improvements when needed - and some of those improvements may be unpalatable for people developing in their spare time, but perhaps necessary if people are really relying on that software. Of course, you have to balance that against creativity and coming up with new ideas that will make a difference. Stuff like the KMail 'browsing through a vertical list of e-mails with *not* your vertical arrow keys' controversy just couldn't possibly happen. There would also have to be a lead taken on the forever controversial subject of installing software, but that would have to be taken outside of the KDE project itself. Too much integration is not good.
There's still an awful lot of work to be done to make KDE and a lot of desktop open source software really ready for ISVs and the wider world and it is simply not being done by commercial distributors. They all want to be their own little Microsofts, but using open source software. They simply don't get it.
The question is, does KDE and the wider open source community really want to tackle that? Getting software into shape for the wider world in a way that some people are now demanding (yes, demanding) is a painful process and one that needs great care. As Waldo said, you can't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. However, if things are to move then changes need to be made.
Woops, this comment is too long now.
NeroLinux may fall flat on its face, but I think there are three reasons a user might chose it over k3b.
1. They're used to the Nero interface from Windows
2. They have a fancy burner and need the support for fancy features. (I think some discontinued Yamaha burners could burn a picture onto a cd)
3. They don't want the KDE libs installed.
Acrobat Reader, on the other hand, is a godsend, despite its many flaws. I'd use it in the same role that I use IE on Windows. Rarely, but it is essential for certain situations.
You're right though. We've been hoping for ISV to jump on the linux bandwagon for years and years. But since it didn't happen, OSS developers just made their own tools. Now that a lot of those tools are better than their closed source counterpart, the need is no longer as great.
NeroLinux is not really needed, Acrobat Reader is needed only for a few situations, but something big without a counterpart like Photoshop would do quite well I think.
These comments have been invaluable to me as is this whole site. I thank you for your comment.
thanks for the post
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