Are Linux apps and games worth paying for?

By David M Williams
Wednesday, 25 March 2009 17:48

Opinion and Analysis

The Linux operating system is free; you can download it without paying any licensing fees. You can use it in the home, you can run a business on it, even a data centre. You can embed it within tiny custom hardware. Despite this, Linux hasn't become a household name. Paradoxically, it may be the perceived dearth of commercial applications which is a cause.

My introduction to computing came with my family’s purchase of a Commodore 64 some 25 years ago, in 1984. This is where I cut my teeth on programming and understanding the inner workings of an operating system.

Like many Commodore enthusiasts I lusted after the Amiga, often considered advanced beyond its time. Yet, despite its legion of skint schoolboy fans and its remarkable feature set the Amiga suffered from a vicious cycle.

By this time, the personal computer revolution had truly become mainstream. The earliest home computers had no focus on compatibility or interoperability or a library of pre-existing software titles because they were the domain of enthusiasts and professionals who were happy to painstakingly type program listings out of magazines in order to get their games and programs.

By the late ‘80’s this wasn’t the case. Businesses wanted serious software, families wanted games, and educational and productivity applications.

Those who actually had money to spend considered other computers – most notably the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh – before the Amiga, for the most part, because they had a wider range of available software titles and were therefore much more immediately useful.

This in turn meant software houses didn’t put an emphasis on the Amiga as a platform because it was a smaller market than other architectures. With both concerns dependent on the other, the eventual result was that Commodore went bust and for the most any hopes the Amiga would be a major force went with it.

I believe there is a lesson in the Amiga that any aspiring hardware platform or operating system can learn from.

On the one hand, Linux is very different from the Amiga. Linux builds on the substantial legacy of the UNIX operating system, and has benefited from the dreams of notables like Richard Stallman and Eric S. Raymond and Linus Torvalds who have sought to promote widely available free and open source software.

One of the compelling arguments in favour of Linux is that it comes with a rich suite of complete, unrestricted pieces of software right out of the box. There’s no extra money to pay if you want a word processor or full office suite. You can find games and programming languages, photo editing programs, web browsers and e-mail tools.

Recently, a number of Windows users were surveyed and asked just what prevents them switching to Linux. What would have to change in Linux for it to get their vote and support? Just what is the big problem with Linux?

Surprisingly, while nobody actually said something like “Linux needs more commercial software” I believe one interpretation of the results is just that.

Let me explain.