Dvorak: Adobe should attack MS with Photoshop for Linux

[greggh]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/s ... 45AC172F8C}

Adobe could port its Creative Suite, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator, In-Design and other subsystems, to Linux as a shot across Redmond's bow. Then the company should embrace Linux in-house and develop a complete, optimized Linux OS designed to run a high-performance version of its Creative Suite on Linux optimized for Adobe products, to be sold as a bootable bundle for multicore-workstation hardware.

The idea is to produce a near-dedicated Adobe computer designed to use all the power of the newest chips to run the Adobe software under Linux. Since Linux is under the hood, users could exit the Adobe programs and run their word processors and whatever else on the Linux boxes.

Having complete control of a high-powered OS would make all of the performance-demanding Adobe software run rings around any other implementation, if engineered correctly. It would become the viable desktop alternative to both the PC and the Mac.

Not gonna happen. Adobe has no interest in seeing FOSS getting stronger. What does their flash for Linux initiative consist of? One guy working on it, in his spare time?

[allix]

If they do, I hope they do a better job than what they do with flash.

mwilliamson writes "As I sit reading my morning paper online I still cannot view the embedded videos due to auto-detection of my Flash player not working. One in every three or four YouTube videos crashes the browser. I remember sometime back reading that Adobe has a very small development team (possibly only one) working on the Linux port of Flash. It has occurred to me that Flash on Linux is the one major entry barrier controlling acceptance of Linux as a viable desktop operating system. No matter how stably, smoothly, efficiently, and correctly Linux runs on a machine, the public will continue to view it as second-rate if Flash keeps crashing. This is the worst example of being tied down and bound by a crappy 3rd-party product over which no Linux distribution has any control. GNASH is nice, but it just isn't there 100%. I really do have to suspect Adobe's motivation for keeping Flash on Linux in such a deplorable state."

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 2&from=rss

[jturning]

Adobe should take the gamble that Linux adoption will continue and release their products on Linux. It should easily make back the money invested and give them some good press. And really get back at Microsoft and Apple which to me would make it worthwhile alone. Though I think the problem with supporting Linux is all the distributions and quick release cycles. For example look at Amazon.com's MP3 downloader and lack of updating, and it's a simple application. I'm having to run a Virtualbox Debian to download music in my Fedora 9 as one documented work around for the Fedora 8 downloader didn't work on my system. Linux is such a rapidly evolving target it makes supporting it difficult and probably why people hesitate. And with that you probably have to figure in support costs and infrastructure as well as training of your people. Of course they could pick one or two main distributions to support.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/452hb7