Linux support

[ecoludologist]

Support for Linux would be awesome. (I notice there's a separate feature request in this list for Linux support for the server)

I know it's no small request, but if you ever do a serious rebuild and move away from WPF, pretty-please keep it in mind?

[Rabcor]

Just popping in to say i'm like-minded.

I quite (massively) prefer using Linux over Windows as a workstation, since it gives me absolute control over the layout of my desktop (Desktop Environments/Window Managers/Workspaces, etc) meaning i can adjust my linux system to function in whichever way is most convenient for exactly the work i'm doing (coding for example)

And i know a lot of people also prefer Mac/OSX as workstations even if i personally h.a.t.e. these. But porting to linux means porting from linux to mac would be a breeze since most of the things that work on linux will easily work on mac too.

I am going to jump in and assume that the code is mostly written in C# since it requires net framework. In my experiences porting C# code over to Python shouldn't be that hard, although possibly time consuming although if i were to vote i'd say go for rewriting the code in C++ instead (for performance's sake, and even better cross platform capabilities).

But yes if it were C# to Python, i learned python by porting C# code over to it (it's just that simple...)

The issue is the GUI code, i don't know any GUI code that WPF can easily be ported to, and i'm not going to recommend GTK since it's becoming more and more obsolete with time. Right now in context with linux, QT4 seems to be the GUI language to go with but this isn't an area i'm very familiar with to begin with.

Running it under a virtual machine is an option, but it's an option i am not fond of. (Virtual Machines are always a "last resort" kind of thing to me)

If i knew anything about writing graphics code i would (without much hesitation) write my own program with similar functionality as articy: draft to run under linux. It'd be development time well spent. Actually maybe i should just look into that

[Kai Rosenkranz]

[...] i would (without much hesitation) write my own program with similar functionality as articy:draft to run under linux. It'd be development time well spent. Actually maybe i should just look into that

Hey, that's an attempt at blackmail.

As you and ecoludologist pointed out, WPF is the major issue, and articy:draft is a GUI-heavy monster. But you put it nicely: If we ever do a major refactoring step, we'll keep Linux and other OS/platforms in mind.

Thanks,
-Kai

[Rabcor]

Hehe sorry ^_^

As long as you're keeping it in mind, i'm happy. Food for thought is that if i wanted to write a program to compete with you (which i don't, i like articy), the first thing i'd do would be aim for cross platform support because it'd mean that people who prefer macs and linux would come straight to me instead of you. Sure, combined even this may be a smaller market than windows, but it still is a market and a market that's currently outside of your reach. Meaning it's the safest way for anyone to compete with you at this moment given that you already have a good reputation.

Everyone who can live with the windows exclusivity will buy your software. But everyone who prefers another operating system is going to jump at whatever has cross platform support (i know i would if i hadn't already bought yours).

If you already had cross platform support, the only way to compete with you would be to (via good advertising/marketing) make themselves look like their program is better than yours. Which would mean they'd need more features, and they'd need to look shinier, (articy already looks pretty shiny, i don't think i've ever used a program that's as visually appealing as articy. And i mean "ever".) In other words they'd need to have some impressive, important feature that you don't have. That's not easy to just think up (one such feature would be cross platform support of course).

But for now, i'm going to carefully consider using a VM since i really do want to be working in linux (it's just that much better).

If i could pay 50$ for linux/cross platform support (after paying 200 for articy draft 2) i'd do it. It has been shown that linux users are more likely to pay for stuff than windows users on average (partly because piracy is smaller on linux than it is on windows, piracy isn't needed because you can get almost everything or alternatives to everything for free, like Gimp instead of Photoshop.)