After takin' a swig o' grog, Matt belched out
this bit o' wisdom:
> Okay, I got a little sloppy in stating my question.
>
> Along the lines I intended, let's try this: Show me a Linux-only app
> that is growing better or being used more _on Linux_ than an equivalent
> cross-platform app is growing or being used _on Linux_.
>
> For instance, if Konqueror had more users on Linux than Firefox has on
> Linux, Konqueror would qualify.
>
> Or if the number of KOffice users on Linux were growing faster than the
> number of OpenOffice users on Linux, KOffice would qualify.
>
> This will help answer the question of whether Linux-only apps benefit
> Linux users more than cross-platform apps do.
>
> It will help eliminate the increasingly-rare delusion that there is some
> kind of benefit to Microsoft in building a cross-platform app instead of
> a Linux-only app.
Why would that be a delusion? If there are 10 times as many Windows users
as Linux users, a cross-platform OSS app is probably more likely to /keep/
them on Windows than it is to help them move to Linux.
All that the cross-platform app does is remove /one/ of the barriers to
migrating to Linux, while allowing the Windows user to /forego/ migrating to
Linux. So I wouldn't call the claim "delusional". It wants for hard
numbers.
Anyway, I wonder if Nautilus fulfills your criteria.
By the way, which programmer do you think is more likely to write a
cross-platform app -- a Linux coder or a Windows coder?
--
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the
men he has around him.
-- Niccolo Machiavelli
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