Re: [libreoffice-users] Linux alternative

Hi :)
+1

But Wine is about bondage in the sense that it keeps you using stuff that
is made for Windows.


Making stuff that needs Wine in order to work kinda keeps you locked-in to
the Windows world.

By contrast we see many native Gnu&Linux programs are then ported over to
Mac and Windows apparently without a huge amount of effort.  Firefox and
LibreOffice/OpenOffice are great examples of that as they have then become
serious competitors to alternatives that were only written for Windows and
then have been unable to be ported to anything else.

If programs plan to become cross-platform then initially writing for Linux
seems to be the optimum route.  Writing for Mac seems to be the next best
option.

Starting with Windows means programs or almost anything else faces a
nightmare up-hill struggle.  Even Microsoft themselves take an extra whole
year to port their office suite to Mac and even then it's a stripped-down
version.


Writing for Wine is a neat trick that i have not heard of before.  It
sounds like it neatly avoids any need for porting at all.  Wine runs on Mac
too so that is all 3 major platform covered in one hit.  It feels like
there must be an inherent flaw aside from the ethical issue of not quite
breaking free of the Windows world.  If not why on earth wouldn't everyone
be doing this? ;)

Regards from
Tom :)







On 18 July 2015 at 17:00, Gary Dale <garydale@torfree.net> wrote:

> On 18/07/15 11:35 AM, Luuk wrote:
>
> > On 17-7-2015 23:47, Gary Dale wrote:
> >
> > > On 17/07/15 05:25 PM, charles meyer wrote:
> > >
> > > > For those on the list using or contemplating Linux, this was
> > > > interesting.
> > > >
> > > >  ....
> >
> >  Frankly though, I'm confused as to why more software vendors don't
> > > compile to libwine .....
> > libwine is about 'bondage'......
> >
> >  It seems some people are just into bondage.  :)
> > >
> >
> >
> >  Not really. Wine has a free license (LGPL). While the individual
> programs you run on Wine may have other licenses, you aren't obligated to
> use programs whose license doesn't meet your expectations.
>
> What Wine and Libwine do is allow developers to develop and test
> cross-platform programs on a Linux platform. I have a program that I
> developed exactly that way. While I could compile a Linux-specific version,
> I find it easier to just market the single version since it runs on Linux
> and Windows.
>
> The point is that there is no extra work to develop and sell a Linux
> version of your software if you use the right products. And you not only
> get a larger target market but also give your customers greater flexibility.
>
> For example, I support a small office that uses a Windows-only program.
> The developers not only don't make a Linux version but they double-down on
> bondage by only using Windows databases (Access or SQLServer for an extra
> charge). Had they supported MySQL/MariaDB, I could have at least moved the
> database to a separate server without worrying about extra licensing, etc..
>
> Windows is like a pyramid scheme that way. They sucker developers into
> using only their products so that users have no choice but to buy licenses
> to run their products properly.
>
>
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