Ok. IF this were a brand new product that hadn't already been chugging away merrily on every distro on the planet, i *might* agree that we *could* be talking about an ROI issue.FourthWorld wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:28 pmI'm not following. Regardless if a problem is in the engine or the IDE, if it only affects an unsupported distro we're faced with the question of who pays for the work.
Linux (as a kernel, which is really what it is) is not all that mysterious. Linux (in the broader term commonly used as an OS) is not all that mysterious. In either case, all the distributions run a kernel, an xserver, and a window manager (Yes, I am WAY oversimplifying this). The choice of desktop shouldn't even enter the picture, as all desktops have fallback to a common set of interface rules.
I understand that the engine went through a very large overhaul, but if your trying to maximize ROI I would think you would not throw out the baby in the bath water as it were. You keep what works (more or less, and it was a *heck* of a lot in the more direction previously), and you design to fail graciously in the bits you want to specialize if it has to fail at all. I'm not convinced it does.
Having said that, I'm also not looking to cause hurt feelings here. I understand that, from the company's POV, things may be (and probably are) very different looking from my POV. The decisions the company would make are certainly not likely to jive with mine, and almost certainly should not as we have two different end goals.
Lastly, some of your statements seemed a bit non-sequitur. For instance -
My mother, who was into her 70s when she started using 'nix, had no issues switching from Windows. Neither did my father. And before you think it, no, I did not stand over their shoulders every minute to make sure they were using it correctlyFourthWorld wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:09 pmBut for consumers, probably better to stick with the leading desktop unless you're looking to acquire Linux admin skills.
I did install it (and showed them how to re-install if necessary), and I showed them how to update the software, then I went home and waited for questions. I got 6 total, 2 about passwords. My mother, after using it a few years, thanked me for installing it.
Using a linux desktop is very little different from using any other desktop, and I am pretty well sure you know that the days of having to configure a distro manually and/or build it from source are long LONG gone, just as the days of having to configure your sound card manually in dos is long long gone. In many ways, I think setting up a linux desktop computer is far easier than either of the two predominant systems. I certainly find it faster.
This statement struck me as true and false. As I mentioned above, the 'OS' part of 'nix is comprised of 3 things generically, + software (which is the category Lc falls into). Your statement seems to be equating distros with completely different OSes, when in fact all of the distros have the same basic foundation, and only the software part is different.FourthWorld wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:09 pmThis is at once the strength and the weakness of Linux as a platform: it's not an OS, but a vast and ever-growing category of OSes, each purpose-built for specific needs. The very flexibility that has made it the de facto standard for infrastructure complicates the consumer experience.
It would be the equivalent of saying you can't possibly support windows, because someone may have installed notepad++ and removed soitaire! why it is completely different now!
While humorous (I chuckled) I don't find this surprising, companies invested in one or another platform would rarely venture outside that arena to begin with, even internally, unless they are doing development in-house.FourthWorld wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:09 pmI have a long standing offer for my clients: when I'm hired to write an app for Mac and Windows, I'll throw in a Linux build for free. To date no one has taken me up on that, because even just the marketing and support cost make it a challenging ROI proposition.
In the context of this discussion, though, it has a lot less relevance. Lc runs on linux, it is one of the environments they support, heck, it is even where the previous incarnation started, and again as pointed out way up there, it had been merrily running away on it since.....um.....what, 1992? Had to be earlier, but lets run with that. 2019 - 1992 = 27 years, almost 3 full decades.
You apparently would have me believe that all of a sudden, getting it to run in multiple linux configurations is too hard?
Like I said, our thoughts part ways here. Doesn't mean your wrong, and I am sure you are not, just as I am sure the company is doing what is in it's own best interest, which is as it should be.