Dear Kastorff,
I do not imply that Scrivener has been created with money as its sole motivation. And as I have tried to explain: I love the software and I have also paid for my copy. Kastorff, chill out, I do not attack on this holy community of L&L, or KB or anybody for that matter. I asked a question and I got the answer. Thank you.
Hi there.
You seem to have started an interesting discussion here, but I think you may have missed one vital point.
Just as you are keen on Linux, lots of folk are equally keen on MacOSX. So any suggestion of porting Scrivener (an application that has actually been the reason that many folk have moved from Windows) to a competing platform, is not really going to fly … 
I did read that link you posted, and unfortunately, it just confirmed something that I have suspected for a long time; there is little room for the small independent software vendor, to make money by open sourcing their application. Of course this not a hard and fast rule; after all I know of many Java developers who have become millionaires by open sourcing their software. But these are usually development tools or application frameworks, not desktop productivity applications.
Reason #1. Although there is nothing in the license to say you cannot charge for the software, open source fans do expect to get it for free. And with the source code freely available, someone will create a version for free and Keith will be out of pocket. Oh, and this free version would STILL be MacOSX only, because the Cocoa framework is not available on any other platform.
Reason #2. The only folk that are making money doing open source are the big vendors selling Linux systems or the outfits who can leverage it to sell add-ons and services such as training and support. Look at the Eclipse platform for example. That hardly qualifies as open source in my book, because rather than being a community-driven effort, IBM pours millions into the project and maintains a sizeable team of full time developers working on it? Why? Because giving it away for free means that they can upsell their other products such as Websphere and DB2, along with training and support. I do not see any such opportunities here for Keith.
I think your best bet would be to encourage a completely independent effort to bring a similar application to the Linux platform … or write one yourself. After all, I believe that is one of the most often quoted advantages of open source software; the ability to fill the gaps yourself.
I mean, if I were to attempt something like this, then I would probably start with the Open Office codebase; everything you need is already there.
But do not feel that anyone is attacking you; they’re just being as passionate as you are about your chosen operating system …
Take care.
When you state something as you did, you leave it to the reader’s interpretation. Here you use “solely” to clarify, but what you miss is that making money wasn’t part of the original motivation. So you are still being misleading. If I was upset, I’d take your advice and “chill out”, but I’m not. I’m just making sure some imprecise and misleading statements get the clarity they are missing.
I am a big supporter of open source and Linux, but the more one knows about Scrivener’s architecture, the more one understands the magnitude of work it would take to create a Linux version. The more one understands Keith’s vision and history with Scrivener, the more one understands why a mention of profit motivation might offend some.
Not to change the subject or anything, but ollisiren, I have a question for you. What exactly is it about Ubuntu that you prefer over OS X? I’ve been intrigued by your comment and others on this forum about Linux, so I installed Ubuntu on my iMac to give it a shot. I’m a complete Linux newbie, though, so maybe you could help me out. Why do you like it so much? Is it the interface (which confused me at first, but I think I’m getting used to it)? Simplicity? The fact that it’s free? I’d like your feedback, because I’m a fan of trying different things.
Thanks!
I regularly (meaning at least once every two days) use Linux (Ubuntu or Fedora depending were I am), XP, and OSX. For me the choice of operating system depends on the task. For writing, I like Scrivener (I am easily distracted by most word processors and their formatting buttons 
), so my operating system of choice is OSX. I also use my little mac frequently for the simple reason that it is the most portable machine in my arsenal. Among my colleagues, I jokingly refer to Windows (XP and Vista) as Crash-dows. As you can see it is not my favorite. I use it only for rare instances when I need to work with Windows servers and even then I will frequently use linux. My linux laptop is ancient (IBM T23 running Ubuntu 7.10). It doesn’t need all the frills a lot of computers (including Macs running the latest operating system) require. Most Linux installations are lighter so they run easily on older systems. I use mine primarily for java programming because the tools available on Linux are (in my opinion) vastly superior to those available on either Windows or OSX. So as a programmer, Linux is my machine. If I had a wireless Linux, I would prefer to use it for writing. This goes back to distractionless writing which Scrivenus does a wonderful job of providing. For me, it is easier to configure Ubuntu to not show any toolbars and turn off the background and special effects than it is for me to do this in OSX. Which is interesting considering that I would terminal to accomplish this in both cases.
As far as basic usability, Ubuntu and OSX are about equal with Ubuntu being less overwhelming for completely new computer users (hence, the reason I picked it for my mother’s new machine).
But my next machine will most likely be a Mac. I love my little powerbook way too much to give it up willingly. 'Course even the Airbook 8) doesn’t seem to compare to my little 12". But I will save my 12" lament for Apple.
I was just about to post here about how things may have changed in the linux world, especially on ubuntu. However i just noticed there is new forum for Scrivener on Linux. So keep to others from making the same error…
Just one question: Is it safe now to assume there will be an official version of Scrivener on Linux and Ubuntu? 
Because i will most certainly switch to ubuntu in some time and otherwise it would not make to much sense to invest time in learning how scriviner works.