Is linux a horrible development platform?

Question

A person I had a talk to in some forums told me that linux sucks as a development platform, I asked why and these were some reasons, I am going to order them here:

1. very fast kernel development for decent drivers to support all properly

2. too many desktop environments for u to support and make sure your apps integrate perfectly in as well

3. too many window managers to support as well

4. different package formats and package management systems

5. each different distro uses its own kernel, xorg version and set of libraries

6. things change too rapidly for example the APIs and stuff without informing developers

7. very difficult to maintain software for every new release and make sure it works properly with each distro

8. most of the time linux users don't want to pay for software

9. some of them will create an open source clone or something and use that instead

10. linux users have this idea that people who expect payment to create and maintain software r evil and they will only use open source stuff

11. since its open source than many programs that may require stuff like DRM can't be allowed

they say that the reason why people don't really bother developing for linux is not that its a tiny market but its too much of a pain and thats the reason people choose to develop for OS X cause they have a better development platform with only 2 api layers that is carbon and cocoa.

Answer 1

It may be that at present, Linux is not an easy platform for commercial software developers.  This will change if and when Linux gains greater presence in professional fields such as media development, engineering, aviation and so forth.

In those fields users will demand slower development life-cycles and will not want to keep on the bleeding edge of the kernel, desktop environments etc.  In these situations there will be vast amounts of money to be made from software development.

That said even now there is a fair amount of proprietary, closed source, commercial software for Linux.  Engineering is a field in which this seems quite common.  If the gaming industry were to embrace OpenGL, for instance, that area might well find Linux a fertile ground.  Little of their design should be concerned with desktop integration or window managers.

Answer 2

You let the forest overwhelm your view of the question.

As a development platform - it depends. If you want to develop for Windoze, or Mac, Linux is probably a bad choice. If yo want to develop for Linux, well it sounds like a great choice.

If you listen to every idiot who has an option, and take it as gosple, you will waste a lot of time listening to idiots - such as myself. So, give a bit of thought to your queries, and take "crusaders" rants with a pretty hefty grain or two of salt!

And remember!!! If you want a windoze environment, M$ will be glad to continue to sell you the latest and greatest every few years, bugs, slow response, and locked down, and ensure that it is not compatible with other M$ software, so you upgrade that as well. Not a lot of choice there, but danged expensive. Or, use your head, do your own analysis, and think about Linux, or Mac or XYZ. Or waste your time with idiots like me!