Linux dominates cloud desktops. So why are companies like adobe ignoring this megatrend?

Posted by zoozooki@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 37 comments

I don't get why adobe and other desktop application companies are ignoring linux desktop. Linux dominates the cloud and many businesses are now moving to the cloud desktop. For their own compute needs and even for their own employees. Provisioning an agile cloud PC for your employee is much easier than giving them an actual high spec one.

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slvrsnt@reddit

Wtf is cloud desktop?

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niteninja1@reddit

Really common in the corporate world.

At my company everyone has a thin client running windows.

Software engineers then have a remote computer (of a good spec) they can RDP etc into. We do it ourselves but Amazon have a offering

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hadrabap@reddit

High latency JPEG blurred remote desktop to underpowered remote machine.

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hainguyenac@reddit

you seem to dismiss it, but I like it, I can connect to my remote desktop from my personal pc at home, or I can connect to that remote desktop from my corporate machine at work. And I don't have to bring any laptop back and forth between home and work.

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slvrsnt@reddit

Why the FUCK would I do that from my own machine? Why would I do that from the corporate machine? Why wouldn't I just connect TO MY HOME MACHINE ...or just use it ?

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hainguyenac@reddit

I have a corporate machine, and I have a corporate Virtual Machine, which I work on, the physical machine is just working as a thin client. I can connect to that VM from my physical corporate laptop, or I can do that from my own PC. I left my corporate laptop at work, so I don't have to carry anything to and from work - When I'm at work, I use the laptop, when I'm at home, I use my PC, sometime I can use my tablet to connect to that. You might not have used it, but it's quite convenient, much more so when you have a few client that manage their own VM and you can connect to those to work. Keep in mind that these are graphical client, not a console VM.

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hadrabap@reddit

I must dismiss it because I'm dealing with it daily at work. It's really annoying and there are better solutions.

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McLayan@reddit

Underpowered and only with software rendering while a lot of modern programs use hardware acceleration nowadays.

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SoilMassive6850@reddit

That's like a (hardware) configuration issue. Virtual GPUs are a thing.

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Material_Mousse7017@reddit

Adobe don't care of getting new customers. Otherwise, they would start porting their CC from tomorrow.

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niteninja1@reddit

they do care about new customers which is why they focus on adding features their users want.

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Material_Mousse7017@reddit

i don't know man, i have not found any other viable reason why, why they would completely ignore Linux users. I know linux market share is the lowest compared to Windows and Mac, but still, there is significant number of linux users willing to subscribe to their services because honestly adobe alternatives are not even close to adobe.

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niteninja1@reddit

I be the number of people who

1) use Linux as their desktop 2) are willing to pay for adobe software 3) are unwilling to use windows or macOS for those programs

is incredibly small like single digit % small.

And I bet once you say we’re only supporting distribution X or Y (probably RHEL and Ubuntu at a push) it’s even smaller.

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niteninja1@reddit

does it?

i bet citrix based windows is has at least double the market share

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KnowZeroX@reddit

Well, adobe is working on wasm versions of their software. but many of their features are just going to be just that, loaded via the cloud.

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leviske@reddit

I work in a medtech company in the EU. The main reason we don't have Linux solutions is basically because the senior architect prefers Microsoft.

The company has an almost 20 years old "multiplatform" project, without any budget or dedicated personel.

I can imagine the same for Adobe.

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Creative_Bedroom_448@reddit

The weird thing is Linux absolutely dominates where the money is made (servers, cloud, AI, rendering, containers), but desktop software companies still optimize for where the users are. Adobe doesn’t really care that Linux powers half the internet if most creative professionals using Photoshop/Illustrator are still on Windows/macOS.

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Severe-Divide8720@reddit

I did see just the other day that a second creative cloud suite app is now operating under WINE. I don't know a lot about it as I'm a dye in the wool Linux user for longer than lots of folk have been alive. So the time is approaching and with the uptick on desktop Linux being as fast as it is. Just a simple fact now, it's only a matter of time before they port it over as native. I can see a day where Office does it too. Microslop (have to say it just coz they fucking hate it) are starting to see the direction of travel. Win 11 is a mess and it feels like every second YouTube tech video is about switching to Linux. They got too complacent and tried to shove stuff down people's throats thinking they had them because of gaming then Proton came to me. Apparently they are now using Steam OS as their reference for Windows 11 performance testing at MS also.

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ThinDrum@reddit

Linux dominates cloud desktops.

[Citation needed]

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Brilliant_Estate_967@reddit

Cause adobe files are even opened on end user computer wigch is on windows or make 96% of time or with a web browser to accès a servor that will support adobe files with their extension.

Its a waste of time and money to develop on linux.(And that's without talking about linux fragmentation and the additional difficulties it brings)

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Pitiful-Welcome-399@reddit

easy, just package it as AppImage or flatpak

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Brilliant_Estate_967@reddit

That's not easy, its going to be a few thousand dollar spend for a community that will ever not spend a dime on it or said its close source and the devil.

So i get them

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ElevenBeers@reddit

The pool of people that spend money on adobe in windows or macos is identical to the pool of people who are using Linux.

The only difference is the number of people using the platforms.

Otherwise valve wouldn't have invested a cent into steam for Linux so far.

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Brilliant_Estate_967@reddit

There is to few people on linux for it to bé valuable.

For steam it is a bit of a différent story -There was policies issues between valve and Microsoft -performance issues they try to fix from windows -the desire to do an operating system non dépendant of windows -a love of open source and pro consumer choice

Steam is just losing money right now with linux développement. But, now they have steamOs that begin to work well (particulary on handeld) and more control over drivers and updates

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ElevenBeers@reddit

Yes, the marketshare is still small, and to small for many companies to consider supporting them. But your previous argument, that Linux users wouldn't spend money on the software is void, valve would have pulled the plug a long time ago if nobody bought games via the platform.

But also yes, steam is a special situation, and the primary reason is dependency on windows. MS can't compete with say Adobe on say graphics, and even if they could, adobe can still sell on apple. What MS could in theory do would be to limit software installs to official means (=Microsoft Store) to prevent third party platforms such as steam. Valves push towards Linux is "just" to diversify their platform, so they will continue to have a platform if MS ever did... silly stuff.... For the same reason they are also investing into FEX, so steam (games) could run on ARM hardware, which will open up the option steam on android down the line as well.

For the "valve reason" though, in a few years we MIGHT have say adobe supporting the plattform. Valve is doing a lot of leg work today and it shows, the numbers of Linux users are short of miraculous, if you've been using Linux as long as I have (20 years). If they keep rising in this rate, in a few years we'll might see Linux from other big players. But we'll see how this will work out.

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