__/ [ Rex Ballard ] on Wednesday 14 February 2007 17:26 \__
> On Feb 14, 10:59 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>> LightZone for Linux delivers commercial quality photo conversion for free
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Like many companies, Light Crafts releases its flagship application --
>> | the RAW photo converter LightZone -- for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
>> | But although the Windows and OS X versions of LightZone cost hundreds
>> | of dollars, the Linux version is absolutely free. It is a lucky
>> | break, too, because LightZone is a powerful tool that bests many
>> | of its expensive competitors on both quality and ease of use.
>> `----
>>
>> http://applications.linux.com/applications/07/02/07/1930237.shtml?tid=39
>>
>> Not only is the extensive operating system free; the same goes for
>> additonal applications and support.
>
> It is interesting how many different commercial applications are now
> available for Linux in some form of "Community Edition". Many of
> these applications follow the Linux business model. Get the full
> system out to end-users, bypassing all of the red tape and procurement
> barriers, then, if the company decides that they want to have a fully
> supported wide-scale deployment, the service and support are available
> for the larger group that will need it more.
>
> I can get Eclipse for free, even get a boatload of plug-ins which do
> the things that used to require monolithic applications, and get a
> very nice solution. ON the other hand, if I have a critical project,
> tight deadlines, and really need some technical support, I can get
> Rational Software Architect, Rational Application Developer, and
> WebSphere server. If I need a small development database for trying
> things out, I can get DB2 Community edition for free, but when I'm on
> a tight schedule and need production scale, I can upgrade to DB2.
>
> The great thing about starting with Linux as the initial platform,
> whether as a stand-alone, VNC connected, or VMWare appliance, is that
> I can quickly and easily scale up to as big as I want to go, including
> Sun Sunfire, HP Superdome, or IBM Regatta. Or if I really want to
> scale up - BlueGeneL!!!
>
> Put simply, Linux let's me go from 1/5th of a Thinkpad, up to
> BlueGeneL without having to rewrite code, without having to redesign
> applications, and without having to give up support as I scale up.
>
> If I start by doing an application in a Windows-only API, that's about
> as far as it goes. Sure, I could scale up to Windows 2003, on what -
> a 4 processor Pentium machine? Maybe a couple of Intel Core 2 Xeons?
> Maybe and AMD X2-64?
>
> Even that scalability is limited by DLL conflicts, thread contention,
> and resource constraints.
Later on I saw a message from an insider (indirect reply to a remark I made).
It indicated that the Linux version is free because it's _easy to maintain_
(among other factors).
--
~~ Greetings
Roy S. Schestowitz | Warning 0x12C: ispell feels tired
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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