On 11/04/2010 18:21, Richard Gaskin wrote:
Richmond Mathewson wrote:
<snip>
I don't think it's any sort of grand conspiracy, but rather that the
cause-and-effect may be exactly backwards from what you suggest:
Hmm; I don't think there is a grand conspiracy - what there may be is an
inadvertent 'something'.
It seems unlikely that Kevin holds meetings in a shuttered room with a
handful of individuals in top hats sitting around smoking Cuban cigars
and deciding that fate of the Rev community through hushed voices.
I know this is a bit facetious, but I suddenly had a vision of exactly
what you described above and laughed myself silly. I wonder
if Kevin smokes at all; he looks far too clean-living for that.
The Linux community has simply thus far failed to gain sufficient
market share to warrant much more of Rev's time than it does now.
While there are quite a few disgruntled posts about Linux from time to
time, most of them have come from about six people.
Yes; and Peter and I probably make 4 of them . . . :)
Just to be clear, I'm not saying Rev runs perfectly on Linux, but Rev
doesn't run perfectly on Windows or OS X either. And indeed it seems
that the farther you go from the market-leading Linux distro, Ubuntu
with Gnome, the more such issues become evident.
I, for one, am perfectly happy to go on developing on a Mac as my
production is 90% done on that platform: however,
deployment on Linux is my problem. Now, I know for a fact that there are
a large number of people who use Linux that
directly relate to my main field - lots of what, for want of being
accused of being a white-ethno-centrist, we might
call "bush schools" in poorer countries where there are buckets of
second-hand PCs for grabs from Europe and
North America running Linux. In India there are lots of these. Now I
have developed a program for writing in an extremely
awkward (but culturally significant) writing system (and have a whole
slew more 'in the pipeline') which I am unable
to deploy on Linux.
So, it seems there are 2 problems here (which may not be the same):
1. The status/standard of the development package on Linux.
2. The ability to deploy standalones built on Windows or Macintosh on Linux.
That said, I don't think this is because RunRev is somehow limiting
any individual's input in favor of some imagined cabal.
On the contrary, it seems self-evident that Rev is listening the
EVERYONE, in a world where almost half of their money comes from Mac
folks and the other half comes from Windows folks, while fewer than a
dozen of us here care about Linux.
If you want to see RunRev give Linux more attention, first get the
world to give Linux more attention by giving it more attention of your
own:
My school runs Ubuntu exclusively and serves up my EFL standalones like
that.
Evangelize the OS; let vendors know when you want to buy a PC without
paying for a copy of Windows you'll be replacing anyway; host or
participate in Install Fests; give away CDs to random people on the
subway; etc. etc. SpreadUbuntu.com has some helpful evangelism tips.
I, for one, have been pushing Linux like a Colombian drug baron; however
there is more to things than that: first get them to run
Linux (and here in Eastern Europe there is a steep rise in this) then
get them to develop using RunRev.
Lots of lawyers, doctors and architects here in Bulgaria running desktop
Linux rigs - but they are not programmers.
Lots of programmers running Linux and programming in Python and so on.
I have 10 of my pupils (think age range 7 -14) who play around with
RevMedia at home (mainly on Windows); but, obviously,
cannot deploy standalones, nor have the cash to buy Studio or Enterprise.
Many professionals here run a "split system" with XP and a Linux distro
on the same machine.
It isn't RunRev's fault that Linux has a 1% desktop market share.
That's not a bug Kevin can address - but we can, and we will.
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