| Photoshop tops "most wanted" Linux app list |
Feb. 01, 2006
Adobe Photoshop has taken an early lead as the "most wanted" Windows/MacOS-only application among Linux users, according to an online poll currently in progress on Novell's CoolSolutions community website. Autocad and Macromedia Dreamweaver are running second and third in the voting, Novell said on Wednesday.
Novell has been polling the public for the last month to find out what Windows-only applications, if ported to Linux, would increase the likelihood that people would switch to Linux. CoolSolutions site editor Scott Morris reported on Wednesday that more than 10,000 votes have been counted since the first week of January.
The top 10 applications (after 31 days of voting) are as follows:- Photoshop
- Autocad
- Dreamweaver
- iTunes
- Macromedia Studio
- Flash
- Quicken
- Visio
- Quickbooks
- Lotus Notes
"The end result is that we will be contacting the vendors of these applications, asking them to partner with Novell to port their software to Linux," Morris said.
There has been a shift in the kind of applications requested since the poll first went live in early January, Morris said.
"Quite honestly, when we first began the survey, the financial applications seemed to be the ones people most wanted," Morris wrote on the website. "As you can see, however, things have changed quite a bit. Common areas now seem to be Internet publication, design, and multimedia. These types of trends have not always been so."
After the first three weeks, Photoshop ranked third behind No. 1 Quickbooks and No. 2 Autocad. Itunes was in fourth place, followed by Dreamweaver (fifth), Visio (sixth), Lotus Notes (seventh), Quicken (eighth), Macromedia Studio (ninth), and Act! (tenth).
"Several years ago, when I first started with Linux, it seemed that, when people thought of Linux, they mostly thought of using it as some kind of server," Morris said. "Mostly, this came in the form of a webserver. As Linux matured, the number of those using it on the desktop increased with time. At that point, the biggest demand was more for basic types of applications. This included word processing, email clients, web browsers, spreadsheet applications, and the like.
"As peoples' needs in those arenas were filled, they wanted media players for their music. An interest in graphic design and manipulation became more apparent. Pretty soon, people not only considered the possibility of Linux as a multimedia platform, but, as we can see, they are now demanding it," Morris said.
Morris said that Novell will probably keep the survey posted and collecting data for about a year.
The one-page survey can be completed in 10 minutes or less.
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