7 Sep
2008
7 Sep
'08
11:38 a.m.
Chuck wrote about music software:
I suspect that when you get in the
area of $500+ single-user license specialty software, Linux isn't an
option.
Sean gave a specific example:
Because they could sell the Unix version for 10
times the amount of the
MS-DOS version. The people interested in a Linux version was a very small
subset of their customer base, and wouldn't pay more than the MS-DOS price
for the Linux version.
Note that for some other markets, customers are willing to pay just as
much for Linux versions as they do for versions for any other Unix
operating system. The fact that the Linux operating system can be had
free of charge doesn't even enter into their thinking, and in fact many
of the customers pay for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The EDA market is an
example of this, with Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor all selling for
Linux versions for basically the same prices as versions for Solaris,
AIX, and HP-UX. Last I heard, the Linux versions were generally
outselling any of the other Unix versions, presumably because customers
see the advantage of saving money on the computer hardware necessary to
run it, especially when setting up a "compute farm", e.g., for
simulations. I don't know how the sales compare to Windows versions,
although some of the high-end EDA software is not even available for
Windows.
Eric