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The big thing I see missing from all this analysis is the home vs. work distinction. You have people saying "Linux users choose FLOSS because of philosophy, an

• ssdd 8y ago
  I completely agree. There are very few paid software for which we don't already have a FLOSS software that can compete with it. Linux users are normally good at finding FLOSS alternatives to paid softwares. Another thing that author can do is to compare Linux home users sales results with Windows home users for any of their product that is available for both platforms. Sales would be similar as long as Linux and Windows software marketplace for that area is same.
  • deleted 8y ago
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  • shkkmo 8y ago
    I tried and failed to find a quality git gui for linux, (coming from SourceTree on OSX). I tried a number and they either had awful UI, lacked functionality, or were too buggy. In the end I ended up paying for a license to GitKraken and am quite happy.
    • merb 8y ago
      basically using a gui for git is not a good practice. most stuff is cluttered together and hard to find. even in sourcetree, stuff that is important is just not good. (I used sourcetree heavily in the past) I moved on from graphical git clients and I'm now way more happy and more productive on the cli. the only thing which I would miss on linux is a graphical merge tool, that is as good as kaleidoscope even on windows it's hard to find an equally well tool for the same price (there are good ones, but are way pricier)
      • shkkmo 8y ago
        I use both gui and command line. Which one varies depending on the task. Quickly checking the working directory state and committing a couple of changes is much easier for me in a GUI. Complicated resets, checkouts, rebases and queries are much easier with the command line. Edit: I find using a GUI to view the state of a git repo reduces the amount of mental space and energy I need to devote to this information.
      • s73v3r_ 8y ago
        "basically using a gui for git is not a good practice. " That is absolutely silly and completely false. I use SourceTree every day and have no issues whatsoever. I'm just as productive as anyone on the CLI, as 95% of actions are the basic pull/commit/push type stuff.
• kevkav 8y ago
  That's a very good point. This tool is purely focused at people who use Linux at work, the dynamics are very different. The article should probably mention something about that.
• brightball 8y ago
  Yep, totally agree with you there. After reading the article that was my first thought when he mentioned adding support for Google IMAP. Full stop. Don't do it. You have a product that is doing well as the solution for something with a clear business case that's not well addressed elsewhere. Own that market and focus your development attention on that Exchange ecosystem. As soon as you branch to IMAP/Gmail/General purpose you're going to be in the sea of tons of other email clients, most of which are free. It's going to dilute the value proposition for Hiri because Hiri is going to become "another email client" that also supports exchange. The taste for email clients that add exchange support is not generally a good experience. It also means that you have to ensure all of your UI elements work equally with both, bringing you to more of a lowest-common-denominator experience. When I see Linux Exchange Email Client and that's all you do, I see specialty software that I can rely on to solve that problem correctly. When I worked at a company that used Exchange, I would have bought it IMMEDIATELY and convinced my boss to reimburse me later. As soon as you become a general purpose email client, everything about what you offer to solve that problem starts getting lost in the shuffle.
  • jtchang 8y ago
    Keep in mind that Google IMAP could mean Google Apps compatibility. And a good number of orgs use Google Apps.
    • brightball 8y ago
      Oh I know, there's just so many existing IMAP clients that I can't imagine paying for a desktop email/calendar client to work with Google Apps. Not to mention all the web based bits like Google Inbox, etc. The value proposition just isn't there with all of the free options already out there.
      • deleted 8y ago
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      • drb91 8y ago
        ....not on linux there aren’t.
• swebs 8y ago
  That, and the fact that people who would subscribe to /r/linux may be more ideological. I use Linux because I want a decent OS that doesn't spy on me. I've had no qualms with buying dozens of Linux games off Steam so far.
  • dkersten 8y ago
    Yeah, it’s a very self selecting crowd.
• borracciaBlu 8y ago
  I do. I work with Linux and on my company we use exchange.. A part for that I pay for: - Skype credit - gitkraken (thanks electron!) And i would pay and pay and pay for a design software like sketch.. I have a lot of hope on figma.. Let see..
  • borracciaBlu 8y ago
    Sorry, forgot to mention sublime!
  • pnloyd 8y ago
    I'm a developer on Linux who wants to migrate into design. I want sketch on Linux so bad :-( I realize though I probably need to Shell out for a Mac though. (Besides for a few brief moments in middle school, I have never used iOS believe it or not)
• yAnonymous 8y ago
  >you're just not going to get any significant number of home Linux users or enthusiasts to pay for your software. More like no significant number of home users are using Exchange. If every software that runs on Windows ran on Linux without restrictions, that would be the end of Windows right now and it's exactly what Microsoft are currently preparing for. They are shifting profits from Windows licenses to the app store and user data/ads to compete with free operating systems and they're trying hard to appeal to Linux users.
  • s73v3r_ 8y ago
    "If every software that runs on Windows ran on Linux without restrictions" Except to many of those users, "Paying for a license to software" is seen as a restriction.
• johnvanommen 8y ago
  About 95% of the work that I do is on Linux. But I run a Windows laptop. Why? Because of the Outlook Calendar. It's kind of amazing that so many tech companies run on Linux, but the Outlook Calendar just won't go away. Nearly everything else in Windows I can replicate in Linux; Excel Spreadsheets, Microsoft Word, they all have Linux equivalents. But Calendar? Nope. I've seen solutions online, and I tried them, but none of them worked seamlessly. In particular, there's a plugin for Thunderbird. But it wouldn't connect with Office 365's calendar. (Email worked perfectly fine.)
  • 18pfsmt 8y ago
    The relevant add-ons are Lightning and Exchange Calendar https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/lightning/ https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/lightning/ https://github.com/ExchangeCalendar/exchangecalendar/ https://github.com/ExchangeCalendar/exchangecalendar/
    • abeyer 8y ago
      Is there mail client integration now, too? That was the big missing link the last time I tried them... the inability to accept and/or reply on meeting invites and handle both the email and the calendar part. I was always able to view my calendar from linux, and could even edit/update personal calendar events, but I always had to fall back to windows or web to handle meeting invites. Pretty much everyone who uses O365 calendar is going to be using emailed invites and they need to work to make this a solution, but I never saw much traction on addressing that issue.
    • SteveCoast 8y ago
      Only works if your Exchange exposes the web interface.
• dpower 8y ago
  Hi there, I'm the author of the blog post. Some context you may find interesting, and maybe I should do a follow up post about this. We were very enterprise focused, but it just didn't work. We were trying to displace MS Outlook. And unfortunately, most people want to stick with Outlook. Not because it's better, but because it's what they know. We found that even if we convinced 8 out of 10 people in a company to buy Hiri, it wasn't enough. IT departments don't want to support more than one email client. 100% adoption is simply not an option. So we pivoted to the current model. A bottom up strategy that has made the company viable. I would say about 50% of our customers are paying with the department credit card, and the other 50% buy it using their personal card. Another interesting find - the growth stage of any given company has a role to play too. Younger companies (both the age of the company and the age of the staff) seem to be more open to trying new software. I guess they don't bring any legacy issues to the table. The problem is that a lot of these young companies choose Gmail. This is why we have chosen to support Gmail.
  • dogma1138 8y ago
    Honestly while it might sounds like I’m speaking out of my ass that’s a bad business model. Outlook is one of the best mail clients out there, not many can disagree about that. The Office 365 web client is nearly identical these days and it runs in the browser. You aren’t going to out Office Microsoft that is just a fools errand. You can maybe focus on better mail clients for the desktop but there are quite a few good ones already yes they don’t work with Exchange out of the box but with IMAP and exchange connectors many of them do. Also by essentially building a client for Exchange you are putting your product at the mercy of Microsoft that can change their APIs and protocol on a whim and even block 3rd party clients with their EULA all together.
    • shimon 8y ago
      They probably shouldn't try to compete so generally. "Better business email than outlook" is a very very difficult challenge. "Better tools to help developers who prefer Linux on the desktop function in a company committed to Microsoft" seems like a real market, but one far too small for a big company. That's the type of market that might be a great starting point for a startup.
• nerdponx 8y ago
  In that case, why does it need to be closed-source? If a business is paying for something like this, they probably would rather pay for a support contract than hire a guy to try and keep it running.
• g5095 8y ago
  The one thing I miss on linux is a good mail client. Currently using Mailspring, but honestly the paid mail clients for OSX leave anything on Linux in the dust. Airmail is my personal favorite and it's $9.99.. a couple of cups of coffee for a great experience in an area that touches your life a dozen times a day? Absolutely I'd pay for a GOOD mail client on Linux.