Re: Frame Linux what to do??

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Bruce Byfield" <bbyfield@axionet.com>
> In short, porting to Linux is not as easy as the original poster
> claimed, but it's not as hard as Lee Richardson is claiming, either. 
> 
> I am not attacking Richardson. He sounds as though he is caught in
> the middle, and I don't envy him his job of publicly defending an
> unpopular decision. However, nothing he has said changes my
> impression that Adobe's decision was based on marketing,not
> engineering considerations.

From: "Mark Hilton" <mhilton@Adobe.COM>
> Bruce is correct in his statement that the decision to not bring to
> market a Linux version of FrameMaker was a marketing decision.  It was
> completely and totally a marketing decision.  Marketing did the analysis
> and based upon the analysis made the assesment that there was not enough
> evidence of a business to warrant all the costs (direct and indirect)
> of bringing to market this product on Linux.

I think that the point Bruce tried to make was that the costs claimed
by Lee Richardson are clearly exaggerated, based on how other players
operate on the Linux market. I happen to agree with Bruce that Adobe
seem to have trouble understanding or evaluating the Linux market,
but I have no figures to base such a claim on. However, I do think
that Corel has shown an approach towards Linux quite different from
Adobe's, may I say, short-sighted instant-profit approach.

Perhaps Adobe will re-consider this decision when Ventura Publisher
is released and KWord is mature on Linux. Especially if KWord
then is ported to Windows (and it won't cost $800 a piece...)

Maybe FM on Linux wasn't profitable at this moment. But there are
already companies looking for a cross-platform solution (including
Linux) that have decided not to buy FrameMaker for Windows or UNIX
because of the Linux decision. The way Adobe has acted during
this "beta" adventure doesn't support the notion that they
have considered all long-time implications and possibilities.
Or maybe they have. And I have no idea what I'm talking about :-)

BTW, this is not an "Adobe-bashing" post. I just think they're wrong.


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Thomas Michanek, FrameMaker/UNIX/MIF expert
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@telia.com   (Sweden)
http://w1.133.telia.com/~u13304072/framers
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