Ask HN: Anyone making living writing Linux desktop applications?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4281803

by nvr82 • 14 years ago

21 5 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm an indie developer who has developed several desktop applications for Windows. I'm thinking to port them (or develop something) for Linux. Anyone here making a living(or even close) writing desktop applications for Linux?

umenline• 14 years ago

this question is better then my question . i hope it will be longer as im big linux fan . linux game makers also included i guess

naner• 14 years ago

As a long time Linux user, I think this would be very tough.

Linux users are used to free software and having everything available through our package managers. We generally don't purchase and download software, mess with serial numbers, licenses, copy protection, drm, etc. There is no standard method for delivering software outside a package manager. Anything you do will likely be somewhat hackish and will not work on everyone's system.

I rarely ever stumble on Linux software that must be paid for. Off the top of my head I can think of: Mathematica, Sublime Text 2, IntelliJ, and, perhaps soon, the Steam client. These are all obviously multi-platform projects that also happen to be available on Linux (which is nice but probably not wildly profitable).

It would help if there were a Linux app-store, but there is not. I think there may be something for Ubuntu along those lines, but the fact that it is only for Ubuntu seriously limits the number of potential customers you have in an already shallow pool. And since Linux desktop users are spread over a wide variety of distros and configurations, a general Linux app-store is unlikely to ever exist.

gizmo686• 14 years ago

I think Ubuntu's package manager gui-frontend brands itself as a store (granted most entries are labeled as free). Also, you could always give a .deb installer as a download (and the relevent format for whatever distribution you want to support). Installing from these works just as well as .msi does in windows.

erichocean• 14 years ago

Many paid applications in the visual effects industry are primarily run on Linux.

fmw• 14 years ago

The consumer market for GNU/Linux desktop application is tough, although there are some niche markets that can be viable. Wikipedia has a list of proprietary GNU/Linux applications that provides several examples[0]. If you want to charge in the consumer market and aren't interested in game development, solving boring, but relatively complicated problems (e.g. tax software) seems like a good bet financially. Open source developers are less likely to sustainably work on boring applications. People that generally prefer free software are also more likely to set aside their principles if you can somehow lessen some kind of significant pain for them (again, like doing taxes).

The business market is much more viable. There all sorts of viable markets, like:

- compatibility glue for either server-side or client-side open source alternatives to the Microsoft stack that solves certain headaches (e.g. arcane file formats, better conversion for scripted Excel sheets),

- GUI (system) management tools (such as CPanel and Plesk for budget webhosting, but for less saturated markets like managing thin-clients or virtual machines that are still a moving target),

- hardware + software (e.g. building things like portable barcode scanners for inventory management, security/surveillance hardware or VoIP boxes using the Raspberry Pi),

- et cetera.

If you target business users open source or dual licensing becomes much more viable too. It isn't economical for most companies to dedicate a lot of resources to IT internally, so they will still pay for e.g. support, training or a managed version of your application. The latter is especially attractive with web applications, of course, because you can sell a managed SaaS version of your application (this is exactly my business model with http://www.vixu.com [1]).

0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_proprietary_software_fo...

1: Based on an Apache licensed application you can find at https://github.com/fmw/vix).

Ask HN: Anyone making living writing Linux desktop applications?

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