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How can you make money on linux? Correction: I understood the original comment as developing software for linux and getting paid for it, and not using it to ma

How can you make money on linux? Correction: I understood the original comment as developing software for linux and getting paid for it, and not using it to make web apps, doing web development is platform independent obviously..

math-dev 5y ago
Not easy at all, but I have a day job (outside of IT). The way would be to build web apps / SaaS and also move more into B2B as consumer facing software would be better built natively for their target operating systems (Apple / Windows / etc) I’m moving more into technical software, so I couldn’t afford more than half my potential user base saying Oh I don’t have a Mac
- emsy 5y ago
  Not easy? The internet basically runs on linux
  - math-dev 5y ago
    Yes but for the single programmer working by himself or herself, its much more palatable to build an app for iOS / MacOS and monetize from it. I believe that is the direction of the parent comment that I replied to. Many things run on linux but they are also very big softwares run by large teams
  - dylan604 5y ago
    If a vendor runs a website to sell their wares that happens to run on linux, then yes it's "easy" to make money on linux. If you are a developer trying to make money on some software you've created specifically for linux, then it's a different thing entirely.
chrisseaton 5y ago
> How can you make money on linux? Doesn't the vast majority of the world's commercial software run on Linux?
- colejohnson66 5y ago
  I’m skeptic of that. Adobe, Oracle, Altium, and MANY other enterprise level software suites are Windows only.
  - chrisseaton 5y ago
    You mean desktop software? What proportion of software use is that? Absolutely tiny, I'd imagine.
- CyberDildonics 5y ago
  Why would you think that?
  - chrisseaton 5y ago
    What do you think it's running on? Data centres full of Macs and Windows machines?
    - CyberDildonics 5y ago
      Why would most commercial software be on data center computers? Where do these assumptions come from?
      - chrisseaton 5y ago
        I don't understand - do you think most services are run from someone's random desktop? That's not the way it works in the real world.
        CyberDildonics 5y ago
        To be clear, you think most commercial software runs on linux because you think most commercial software is services running in data centers?
KMnO4 5y ago
Be a web developer. Web works just fine on Linux.
hatsubai 5y ago
While not exactly being what you're referring to (I believe you're solely referring to something akin to enterprise-esque application development), there are many jobs out there for those of us who build entire distros for public (and private) entities to consume. This ranges from automotive, to defense, to open source OSes like Ubuntu, SUSE, CentOS, etc.
shepting 5y ago
I used to work at a company in the chip-design software space that built Linux-only software for $100k/user/year, so there's definitely money to be made for Linux (even if it happens to be niche software).

math-dev 5y ago

Not easy at all, but I have a day job (outside of IT). The way would be to build web apps / SaaS and also move more into B2B as consumer facing software would be better built natively for their target operating systems (Apple / Windows / etc) I’m moving more into technical software, so I couldn’t afford more than half my potential user base saying Oh I don’t have a Mac

emsy 5y ago
Not easy? The internet basically runs on linux
- math-dev 5y ago
  Yes but for the single programmer working by himself or herself, its much more palatable to build an app for iOS / MacOS and monetize from it. I believe that is the direction of the parent comment that I replied to. Many things run on linux but they are also very big softwares run by large teams
- dylan604 5y ago
  If a vendor runs a website to sell their wares that happens to run on linux, then yes it's "easy" to make money on linux. If you are a developer trying to make money on some software you've created specifically for linux, then it's a different thing entirely.

chrisseaton 5y ago

> How can you make money on linux? Doesn't the vast majority of the world's commercial software run on Linux?

colejohnson66 5y ago
I’m skeptic of that. Adobe, Oracle, Altium, and MANY other enterprise level software suites are Windows only.
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  You mean desktop software? What proportion of software use is that? Absolutely tiny, I'd imagine.
CyberDildonics 5y ago
Why would you think that?
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  What do you think it's running on? Data centres full of Macs and Windows machines?
  - CyberDildonics 5y ago
    Why would most commercial software be on data center computers? Where do these assumptions come from?
    - chrisseaton 5y ago
      I don't understand - do you think most services are run from someone's random desktop? That's not the way it works in the real world.
      - CyberDildonics 5y ago
        To be clear, you think most commercial software runs on linux because you think most commercial software is services running in data centers?

KMnO4 5y ago

Be a web developer. Web works just fine on Linux.

hatsubai 5y ago

While not exactly being what you're referring to (I believe you're solely referring to something akin to enterprise-esque application development), there are many jobs out there for those of us who build entire distros for public (and private) entities to consume. This ranges from automotive, to defense, to open source OSes like Ubuntu, SUSE, CentOS, etc.

shepting 5y ago

I used to work at a company in the chip-design software space that built Linux-only software for $100k/user/year, so there's definitely money to be made for Linux (even if it happens to be niche software).