Interestingly enough, a Linux build _was_ one of the pivots we'd experimented with. Maybe it was because we chose the wrong distro, or our general ignorance of what Linux users might want, but this seemed to generate little to no interest amongst the Linux market/s. If anyone here knows better, or wants to tell us what we did wrong, I'm happy to hear it.
It probably does depend a lot on what distro you target - Ubuntu being the most "consumer-focussed" one, that's the one I'd suggest. They also have their Ubuntu Software Store, which allows you to sell apps through a desktop application, something like the Ubuntu version of the iTunes app store. It's early days yet for that though, so hard to tell how it'll go.
There are a significant number of Linux users who highly value the ability to see how the software they use works, and modify it as they see fit. Many of these users consider it a moral imperative that all software they run is open to inspection and modification. You won't sell anything to the people in this latter category - and you'll probably get a few angry emails, too.
On the other hand, there are also plenty of Linux users out there running closed-source NVidia drivers, Oracle databases and more.
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Interestingly enough, a Linux build _was_ one of the pivots we'd experimented with. Maybe it was because we chose the wrong distro, or our general ignorance of what Linux users might want, but this seemed to generate little to no interest amongst the Linux market/s. If anyone here knows better, or wants to tell us what we did wrong, I'm happy to hear it.
It probably does depend a lot on what distro you target - Ubuntu being the most "consumer-focussed" one, that's the one I'd suggest. They also have their Ubuntu Software Store, which allows you to sell apps through a desktop application, something like the Ubuntu version of the iTunes app store. It's early days yet for that though, so hard to tell how it'll go.
Can one do this and distribute a closed-source app this way? Is it practical to do so?
In addition to the feedback we got on our choice of distros, we also got a number of complaints about our offering a closed-source app for Linux.
Again, that's probably my ignorance of the Linux market in general, but I have the sense users are pretty evenly divided on this point.
(Thanks, BTW!)
That's the intention - (eg. http://www.workswithu.com/2010/09/10/fluendo-dvd-player-for-... ). Like I said, it's early days though.
There are a significant number of Linux users who highly value the ability to see how the software they use works, and modify it as they see fit. Many of these users consider it a moral imperative that all software they run is open to inspection and modification. You won't sell anything to the people in this latter category - and you'll probably get a few angry emails, too.
On the other hand, there are also plenty of Linux users out there running closed-source NVidia drivers, Oracle databases and more.