What software would be worth paying for on Open Source Linux?
Linux has been my primary Desktop for about 13 years now. As such I rarely have to pay for software. Open source is just awesome that way. Yet when I thought about it I have paid for Codeweavers Crossover Linux, despite the fact that its available for free as wine. I’ve also paid for Zend’s Studio for Eclipse even though much of the functionally is available in the PDT plugin for Eclipse. While I don’t do so currently, I’ve been known to pay for SuSE Linux and StarOffice.
Scribus is a an Open Source Desktop Publishing tool
Considering this I realized that I very much enjoyed paid software for Linux. Not that I’d try to make the claim that paid support is somehow superior to the community approach (very often it isn’t) . But when my business requires something be fixed it does make me rest easier knowing that someone is being paid to fix it. Linux and most of the software that runs on it will always be available for free,. With just a few moments thoughts however I realized that there were a handful of products I cheerfully paid for. So what other software would I be willing to spend money on?
3D modeling in Blender
I would love to have a branded version of Scribus that suppored Microsoft Publisher files and came preloaded with tons of templates and layouts. I’d pay money for that. Or a branded version of Blender that could export as a Flash animation. What about a version of inkscape that could open up the latest Illustrator files? Amarok that worked with iTunes and the latest ipods. What about a version of recordMyDesktop that came with flash, HD support and pre recorded sound effects?
Amarok using Magnatune instead of iTunes
The more I thought about it the more I realized that there is a lot of software I’d pay for if they were offered for Linux. Some of these features would probably require someone to pay for license fees or some such but why isn’t this happening? Am I alone in my desire for this? Or are software application firms missing out on low hanging fruit? Would the community support such branded applications? I haven’t heard of any major backlash of Codeweaver. So why aren’t more companies taking this on?
Carl Parrish is an open source developer and Founder of PCL Design & Consulting Inc. A web application company in Mesa Arizona. He’s also active in his local Browncoats Organization
17 Responses
everything!
I think it’s just a matter of looking in the right places, for both buyers and developers.
https://www.pubsoft.org/
http://www.fossfactory.org/
I would be willing to pay for software as long as it was of good quality. All software developers need to make a living. Linux needs to attract big name developers, and as the amount of Linux users increase, so will the need for high end software.
I would pay for a good Sign Vinyl cutting/plotter software for Linux, its the only thing holding me back from going totally Linux as of now I have to have a windows xp partition just for Flexisign to operate my cutter.
I’m willing to pay for good software, as long as it doesn’t have vendor lock-in (no DRM, no closed file formats, no activation model).
For me: a good, professional level drafting program (like Bricscad is supposed to be working on).
I have one paid Linux program, Mailwasher (spam detection/deletion/reporting pfr POP/IMAP accounts) from firetrust.com, sadly they dropped the linux version for now due to low levels of interest. Nothing opensource comes close to deaing with my incoming spam.
I\’d pay for the ability to get Rhapsody tunes under Amarok, I get them off my Linux based Sonos music system so it has to be possible.
Interesting that of the desired features you list, all (except the better templates-part of scribus) has to do with proprietary lock-in formats.
* Flash
* Itunes
* Publisher
Seems like these lock-ins is just as effective as the product-engineering departments envisioned.
I would(are) gladly pay for:
* Good games. Anyone, isn’t there any decent realism-shooter for Lin, except TC:E? (And dont say Urban Terror, or TacOps:Crossfire, they just aren’t that real)
* Good services, I’e Spotify, Last.fm, and equivalents for tv-series/movies if there were any.
* A _really_ good cross-language IDE (At least, C/C++, D and Python is required). CodeBlocks is almost there, if someone would just wrap it up and deliver stable supported version instead of the perpetual developer snapshots.
Well – if you want something more “professional” than Blender you could buy Maya2009, Houdini 9.5 or Softimage XSI 7.5. They all have a native Linux version.
Be sure to have a big bag filled with money tough…
I would pay the full dime for Photoshop or other Creative Suite products from Adobe if there were Linux versions. I really don’t care about DRM or restricted formats.
I don’t pay for proprietary software on GNU/Linux, since the most important reason I run GNU/Linux is because of Freedom.
Would be great instead if people get used to donate some money, maybe once a year, to some of their favourite Free Software project, to thank the developers and make them work for better and better products.
I do.
Don’t understand why people are used to pay for antivirus software on Windows and don’t dontate i.e. to Clamav. Why they pay for M$Office and don’t donate for OpenOffice?
Just donating a fraction of what they save, they will ensure to keep being Free and save money in the future.
Proprietary software is the name of the chanins, stay away!
I would Pay for Cyberlink Power DVD because there is still nothing in the open source arena to match it.
Ultraedit! Would and will.
I have been unable to get Blackberry Desktop working under Linux. This is really the only thing keeping windows on my computer and would gladly pay for a linux version.
I have a favorite text editor (Epsilon by Lugaru) which I have been using since the early 80’s. At that time it was the only virtual memory editor available on the old S100 bus Z80/8080 CPM systems. Epsilon is a whole lot like emacs — but different. I moved from CPM to DOS to Windows 3, 3.1, 95, 98, and XP as well as very early Slackware, RedHat, Fedora, and now Ubuntu Linux. All the while using Epsilon. Upgrades have cost me about $100 every four to six years so I have probably spent around $500 in all for this remarkably well done piece of software. Other than Epsilon I have not bought any other software for Linux. Over the same period of time I have probably had to spend upwards of $20,000 for programs and Windows which mostly didn’t do what they were supposed to do. There must be good commercial software out there but in my experience there isn’t much of it. The more it costs the worse it is. We paid $3,000 for PCAD and an annual maintenance contract that cost an additional $1,200. Without the maintenance contract which included phone service we could not have used the product. I have used MySql for years now and never felt the need for a maintenance contract because it “just works”. When programs “just work” you don’t need “support”. Epsilon is one of those programs that “just works” and I don’t mind spending money for something I am use to and works.
I recently bought World of Goo from 2D Boy (2dboy.com also http://www.worldofgoo.com) and it was money well spent.
It runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Win32, which just goes to show that good multi-platform software can be written.
Ulrik Mikaelsson I’m interested in why eclipse doesn’t meet your needs for a IDE?