Jiva> To settle a dispute with someone: Would you pay
  Jiva> for commercial software for Linux?

Yes.

  Jiva> Ie: Say, games, 

No.
			
  Jiva>			productivity applications, etc?

Depends.

  Jiva> If so, why does it seem that most linux
  Jiva> commercial software ventures fail?

Could be because it's not the *right* software. There
are certain commercial packages that run *only* on
Windows and Mac systems that simply don't exist on
Linux. In the case of MS software, this is intentional,
not an oversight.

Just to cite one example -- I for one would love to
have the Macromedia Web development packages like
Dreamweaver.

I'd also love to set up a complete music studio on my
Linux machine. I'm a former professional musician, and
would love to have a Linux-based 8-track recording
studio with complete functionality. Never mind that I
also own a Mac clone and could set it up there, but
have never gotten around to it. My Linux box is newer,
faster, has better hardware, and is my system of
choice.

Never mind that there are so-called clones or
functional equivalents of big name packages available.
Those are not what I want. What I want is Dreamweaver,
period. (And a variety of other commercial packages.) I
for one would never buy a "clone" substitute. (I tried
a couple of so-called substitute packages, and they
sucked. StarOffice sucks, too. So does MS Office, but
sometimes when you need it, you need *that*, so I have
it on my Mac.)

Furthermore, there is very little chance that most of
the "good" applications will ever be available on
Linux.

I say this partly because I'm a 58-year-old laid-off
casualty of the high-tech crash desperate for a job,
and familiarity with a lot of things that I don't know
about because I've never used them is looked for in job
postings. I never bothered to learn them, because I
never needed to know them in my previous job with
Motorola Computer Group, where I used only Linux.

I say it even though I've been exclusively a Unix guy
(Linux the last three years or so) since 1983, and have
*never* used a Microsoft system as my base of
operations.

And I say this even though whenever I whack at text, in
any sense of the word, I have used nothing but versions
of Emacs since 1987 (XEmacs since it first started),
and do Web development directly in HTML or Perl CGI
whenever I possibly can. (And LaTeX for text
preparation. Etc.)

Job recruiters don't care. All they see is that I don't
know the application skills they are looking for, and
that I don't even really know Windows very well. (I
claim to know it. I've used NT and W2K a bit. How hard
can it be? Give me a week and I'll be an expert.)

It's almost enough to make a guy switch to using a
Windows system. Clearly, MS has won the desktop war.
Linux never had a chance in that arena. The only
persons using Linux as a desktop are those idealists
among us who have become jaded on Unix and have not yet
given up the lost battle. (Like me.)

-- 
Lynn David Newton
Phoenix, AZ
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~lnewton