
Is it worth supporting Linux on my product? - carloslfu
Some products support Linux, and some not. For instance, VScode, and Zoom support Linux, and Figma doesn&#x27;t. What do you think are the critical aspects of such a decision? I have heard that it does not worth it because Linux users are less than 3% of desktop users, but AFAIK would be more than 30M users.
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rvz
> I have heard that it does not worth it because Linux users are less than 3%
> of desktop users, but AFAIK would be more than 30M users.

Depends on the product. If it's a paid SaaS product meant for targeting server
applications or developers tools such as automation, then it makes sense for
Linux support which is why most Adobe software isn't on Linux since most of
their audience is on macOS and Windows.

If it's a GUI product, then you need to 'define Linux support'. You can't
support _all_ Linux users 100% of the time since they will be using different
distros, thus you need to select 2-3 distros, make sure it runs perfectly on
their system and maintain the instructions and updates as well. This sort of
maintenance is less involved with Windows and macOS.

If it were me, I'd go where my largest target audience is and compete there
first and support smaller demographics last if the demand is there.

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dyingkneepad
Just make it work on the browser, you'll get Linux almost for free.

Edit: for example, I absolutely hate the idea of downloading some closed
source Zoom binary to run from my local user. I have seen the atrocities that
closed-source Linux things do to your machine, and I will avoid it as much as
possible. I will not consider running your binary if there's an open source or
browser-based alternative. Whenever I needed to use Zoom, I did it from the
browser (once I learned their extremely evil anti-pattern that leads me to the
browser app version).

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jqpabc123
_...AFAIK would be more than 30M users._

I would presume these are more technical users --- with a strong preference
for open source.

Does this sound like who your product is for?

It is all about identifying your target market/audience.

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zzo38computer
Depends what your product is, I think. If you are using SDL, then it won't be
too difficult to support Linux. But some things will work fine using some sort
of VM code anyways, such as emulation of old game systems, or text-adventure
VMs such as Z-machine and Glulx, or HTML. For some products, just ensure it is
fully documented; if it isn't available on Linux, some users may then
reimplement it on Linux, supporting the same protocol.

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factorialboy
Depends on your audience. What's the percentage of your audience with Linux?
Is the effort of supporting Linux worth the revenue?

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forcemajeure
Look at the platform demographics and the target audience. For example if
you're targeting developers, the market share increases significantly!

