"There is no point in creating the perfect Linux if there are no companies developing software specifically for it. It is very rare to find a management system for commerce that can be installed on a PC and runs on Linux. I searched extensively and couldn’t find one that truly met my company’s needs, so I had to choose Windows. Linux is already at a level where it can be used with greater ease. What is missing now is having systems that work on it—without this, things will never change."
"Não faz sentido criar o Linux perfeito se não houver empresas desenvolvendo sistemas voltados especificamente para ele. É muito raro encontrar um sistema de gestão para comércio que possa ser instalado em um PC e que rode em Linux. Procurei bastante e não consegui encontrar um que realmente atendesse às necessidades da minha empresa, então tive que optar pelo Windows. O Linux já está em um nível onde pode ser usado com mais facilidade. O que falta agora são sistemas que funcionem nele — sem isso, as coisas nunca vão mudar."
Commerce systems are generally used to manage website content, which should all be possible to do on linux. Or are you talking about software installed on the computer?
Os sistemas de comércio são geralmente usados para gerenciar o conteúdo do site, o que deve ser possível fazer no Linux. Ou você está falando de software instalado no computador?
This depends a lot on what the company does.
The O.P. may be referring to company needs that are not gaming or server or banking related; which are well supported in Linux.
As an example: Auto Mechanical. Very little commercial software is written for automotive diagnostics, OBDII communication bridges etc that operate in a Linux or GnuLinux environment. Many exist for WIndows OS. Off the top: Mitchell 1 & ALLDATA.
For Specific Company need examples that are independent of the businesses purpose, we all know about Quickbooks and Turbotax.
Retail side, Revel and Square P.O.S. systems are Microsoft or Apple supported, but not supported in Linux/GnuLinux.
The more professional software made for Linux, the greater the support will have, and as a result, Linux will start becoming mainstream. Microsoft and Apple would prefer Linux to stay small, so they can continue their monopoly of ripping people off.
Those who actually care about freedom, keeping their own data, making their own choices, will choose Linux. You really can't help those who freely give away their freedoms for convenience. You can only hope that one day, they will eventually see the light.
There is also another context. I have posted this story before. The owner of an engineering company was tired of forking out for new Windows licences. The main issue, software for his CNC Lathe was Windows based but would not run on newer Windows OS. Solution! He was done with Microsoft, used Fedora Workstation and ran a VM of XP which held his CNC Software. Problem solved.
One of the biggest issues comes with regard to Office Suites. There was initially going to be an agreement universally on the .odf standard, but as usual MS pulled the plug on it. That is why even now LibreOffice/OpenOffice documents saved as .doc/x still don't view correctly in MS Word. However there is SoftMaker Office, Free and Pro version. For £79 you get an Office Suite licence for 5 machines which could be a mix of any platform (GNU/Linux, Mac, Windows) and their Ribbon is far superior to Microsoft's. For those who prefer traditional layout that can be used if you wish. My workflow whilst in lockdown until I retired was far more fluid using SoftMaker Office and OpenSource software using Okular, pdf Arranger, Inkscape, GIMP, LIOS, pdftk to repair corrupt pdf's, Evolution mail to access Outlook365. So whilst not meeting every need, it can work in a large proportion of cases, or you take a secure fallback of running Windows as a VM using virt-manager which is what I had to do in respect of a shared Mailbox and Brailleblaster for Windows the latter because moving from FerenOS where the Linux release of Brailleblaster worked didn't under Devuan.
C'è anche un altro contesto. Ho già pubblicato questa storia in passato. Il proprietario di un'azienda metalmeccanica era stanco di sborsare soldi per nuove licenze Windows. Il problema principale era che il software per il suo tornio CNC era basato su Windows, ma non funzionava sui nuovi sistemi operativi Windows. Soluzione! Ha chiuso con Microsoft, ha utilizzato Fedora Workstation e ha eseguito una VM di XP che conteneva il software CNC. Problema risolto.
Uno dei problemi più gravi riguarda le suite per ufficio. Inizialmente doveva esserci un accordo universale sullo standard .odf, ma come al solito MS ha tirato la corda. Ecco perché ancora oggi i documenti LibreOffice/OpenOffice salvati come .doc/x non vengono visualizzati correttamente in MS Word. Tuttavia esiste SoftMaker Office, nella versione Free e Pro. Per 79 sterline si ottiene una licenza della suite Office per 5 macchine che possono essere un mix di qualsiasi piattaforma (GNU/Linux, Mac, Windows) e la loro barra multifunzione è di gran lunga superiore a quella di Microsoft. Per coloro che preferiscono il layout tradizionale è possibile utilizzarlo, se lo si desidera. Il mio flusso di lavoro, mentre ero in isolamento fino alla pensione, era molto più fluido utilizzando SoftMaker Office e software OpenSource come Okular, pdf Arranger, Inkscape, GIMP, LIOS, pdftk per riparare i pdf corrotti, Evolution mail per accedere a Outlook365. Quindi, anche se non soddisfa tutte le esigenze, può funzionare in un'ampia percentuale di casi, oppure si può scegliere di eseguire Windows come macchina virtuale utilizzando virt-manager, come ho dovuto fare per una casella di posta condivisa e per Brailleblaster per Windows, perché il passaggio da FerenOS, dove la versione Linux di Brailleblaster funzionava, non è avvenuto con Devuan.
That's sort of a chicken and the egg sort of problem.
Why would companies developing this type of software invest in making it available for platforms with such a low usage? This is one of the reasons a lot of hardware doesn't work on Linux, or takes years to become partially compatible (because of volunteers working on reverse engineer the drivers).
For the same reasons, why would companies consuming this type of software (as per the examples mentioned above) use an OS that does not meet their business needs?
Both are very valid and reasonable arguments. I don't blame either one.
Luckily, Linux doesn't have shareholders to please and deadlines to meet. The open source nature of Linux allows for a much more flexible development pace to meet those needs wherever they are needed, typically in the areas where Linux excels at: infrastructure. A few examples of the Linux community stepping up are Rocky Linux, OpenTofu and Valkey.
Most people probably never heard of these projects, nor should they. They are tools used in the industry that have been forked from their original projects to keep development going without falling in the vendor lock-in trap that a lot of companies like to engage into e.g.: Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc.
This naturally circles back to the beginning of this topic. Those companies that only develop software for Windows are able to keep operating costs low thanks to the free (as in freedom) and open source projects developed by the Linux community. Which is why, while Windows dominates the desktop computing market, the same is true for Linux in other spaces such as servers. And by "servers" I mean all domains ranging from web servers to supercomputers.
As an anecdote, I've worked at companies where certain departments were all using Ubuntu since most of the job could be done with cloud-based tools via a browser. This cut costs of dozens or hundreds of expensive licences.
I have a friend with a windows laptop who frequently makes digital drawings using Krita
My brother sometimes uses gimp and has never considered switching to anything else because he's used to it and it works fine for him
Both would be fine on linux. Maybe Microsoft Office would be an issue, but, at least my brother, gives it such a light usage that libreoffice with .odt files would a viable alternative. And I do know the friend already uses Google Docs for some things, so switching in those cases is more of a matter of "but do I want to?" than of "the software I use doesn't run"
Of course, there are people who need very specific software that won't run on linux, but I don't see why would linux not be able to surpass at least macOS with the current software support we have
