wtf_man wrote on Oct 13, 2013, 18:57:
Linux needs a large quantity of Commercial Software support in order to be viable on the desktop (Not just games).
...
While open source has some great stuff out there... some of it will just never replace commercial software on the professional level (Like GIMP VS. Photoshop).
The only way Linux could ever become viable on the desktop is if there was a sudden WAVE of popular commercial software available for the platform. NOT just one "Killer App".
Wrong, just wrong.
The whole point of Linux is it's "Open" the masses of people that work on and with Linux don't really want lots of 'Commercial' closed source software on their machine.
Most hardcore Linux and open source fans don't even like NVidia despite the fact that NVidia supports Linux by supplying very good quality stable video drivers that give great performance. why? because they are closed source. They would rather use the open source driver that is buggy and slower.
I've been using Linux on my laptops and desktops ( and servers for work ) for years now ( with proper Nvidia drivers so I get the performance! ) I've played a number of games, mostly from id Software as they did native Linux ports but recently I've been playing games using 'wine'. It's tricky to make it work and it's not perfect but then last time I played a game on Windows 7 I got a few random crashes and a hung machine ( Skyrim, I'm looking at you ).
In terms of software the majority of software I use on my Linux machine is also available for free on Windows. why, because it's open source and a lot of open source code is written to be open for as many people as possible so it's written using open APIs ( like OpenGL, OpenAL, QT etc ) then it's pretty simple to port to Windows, Linux, Mac etc.
Companies that write code that can only be compiled on Windows are short-sited and lazy, it doesn't take a lot of work to write application that are cross platform, just some up front planning.
I hear my wife and kids and colleagues at work all complaining about Windows 8 and Windows 7 crashes / hangs / slowness / general issues, this hasn't changed in forever. I like saying "I don't have that problem, I don't run Windows!" - That doesn't mean I don't have problems, Linux is software, therefore it's not perfect, but it's harder to complain about something that's free ( and don't make that point that time is not free so time solving problems = cost - I spend no more time with problems on my Linux machines than an average Windows user! ).
So my final comment is simple, if you guys like paying M$ for their OS and like paying for lots of Commercial Software then keep ignoring Open Source. Linux and Open Source software is everywhere and doing very nicely thank you.