Why are people still using Windows? Seems to me that the pain to use it is still not big enough. I welcome every move that increases the pain and drives people to better options.
My job includes programming devices from manufacturers that only write their software for Windows. There are entire industries that are blind to anything but Windows due to lock-in from one or more manufacturers of devices needed for daily operations.
Some consumer products are similarly locked-in due to supporting software. There may be alternatives for common tools, but device-specific things simply won’t work on Linux, 90% of the time. Sure, we can request the manufacturer support Linux in some way, but good luck getting any response let alone a working port.
Edit: Yes, it may be becoming more painful to use Windows, but until it’s less painful to take the Linux path for viable alternatives, nothing will change.
The Linux or macos path, if there is one is always less painful.
If there isn’t one, if the a manufacturer doesn’t support other os’ then you should demand this support from them. They will only listen to money. So take your money to an alternative or offer money for the support.
The point is that it’s not Linux’ fault that program x is not natively supported on Linux. It’s the programs fault and partly yours/your employers for choosing it.
No one has said it’s Linux’s fault… But unfortunately it’s still an issue Linux users have to deal with.
Also, not everyone is the CTO of their company to demand other suppliers. Most people are stuck with company policy that they have absolutely no say in it. Companies are not democracies.
Because Revit and OpenRoads designer doesn’t work on Linux. And neither of my RMMs work for Linux.
As I tell everyone who comes up with this kind of takes. This is not Linux’s fault or responsibility. This is the specific app developer’s fault.
No one screams at Google because iMessage doesn’t run on Android, that would be madness. For every software package or app that doesn’t run on Linux, there’s usually several dozen alternatives that do. If you don’t like them and want to stick with the ones you like and also try to use Linux? the move is to call out the app developers. Tell them that you want Linux support, a Linux build and to please work on that.
There’s zero, absolutely nothing, nothing at all, that the developers of a OS kernel, or the maintainers of a distribution can do to force other’s app to support the OS they work on.
The most we can do is offer compatibility layers like Wine that can run some Windows only software. And they can go pretty far, like Proton, which can run most games. But still there’s only so much these can do. The tooling, build libraries, compilation chain, everything that exist to make an app for Windows has its counterparts for Linux. It usually only takes a couple of afternoons tinkering with config files to get a project to compile for Linux. With almost no change to the code base itself. The community usually does the bulk of the distribution part, making Flatpaks, or setting up the package for the repositories. Even then, making a RPM or DEB file is also a no-brainer. So, if your favorite app doesn’t exist in Linux, it is because the developer either made the conscious decision of not supporting, or no one has ever told them that they want one, so they haven’t considered it. Sometimes they deliberately make their app impossible to function on Linux, it happens, they have explicit code in their software that detects things like Wine to sabotage the OS.
The move is to write to your favorite app’s developers, complaining on social media does nothing, we literally can’t do anything for you.
There is no substitute for Revit on Linux. Autodesk won’t even bring it to MacOS, which is what many architects prefer. People have been asking them for years to develop for other operating systems and they don’t give a shit. The person you responded to wasn’t blaming anyone for autodesk not supporting Linux. They were answering the question of why they still use it. I use Revit every day for work and I would wipe windows from my work pc in a second if there were an alternative. I’m working on a $300m project right now where it specifically states in the contract that we must use Revit so until autodesk decides to support it or goes fully browser based, we are screwed.
