RE: vector-based drawing tool that runs on Linux/UNIX

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

"Humbird, LenX" <lenx -dot- humbird -at- intel -dot- com> wrote

>You have a job to do. If it's drawing, then you need the right drawing tool
>for the job. Don't complicate it by limiting to a specific OS or hardware
>platform, or worse yet, limited to those that are "in vogue." Pick the tool.
>If it's on an OS or platform that you're not using, go ahead and add it to
>your collection. At the very least, you'll have some valuable experience
>that you otherwise wouldn't have had. There's a reason why professional
>animators don't use mainstream iron - though they could and though
>mainstream iron is cheaper. There is a business reason why there is still a
>proliferation of OSs and platform types. 
>
>Get the job done with the right tool regardless of the other qualifications
>and chances are it'll get done faster and cheaper. 

There's a few things you don't seem to understand:

1.) Not everyone has full control over the OS or tools that they
use.

2.) Many people are just discovering Linux. They don't know much
about what's available.

3.) Although many proprietary Linux tools exist, even more open
source ones exist. The open source ones are often just as high
quality as the proprietary ones, but they are harder to find
unless you know where to look.

4.) If you have a look at www.gnu.org, you'll see that for many
users, Linux is not just an OS. It's also a philosophy or
movement. One of the basic tenets of this community is that the
right to copy, modify and distribute software should be just as
much a right as freedom of expression or freedom of religion. As
a result of this belief, many Linux users will not use any
proprietary software whatsoever. Others will only use proprietary
software when absolutely necessary. For people with these
beliefs, the tool or the OS (or, rather, what license it is
release under) becomes extremely important. Many will even use a
tool that isn't as fully featured in preference to an advanced
proprietary tool.

You may think these ideas are ridiculous. For that matter, I
don't know what the other people who have responded to this
thread think of them. However, they are real, and I suggest that
any ideology that can mount a challenge to Microsoft at least
deserves respect (personally, I find them fascinating).

Anyway, what I was trying to say is: this thread makes sense for
several reasons that you might not have been aware of.


-- 
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
"The Open Road" column, Maximum Linux
3015 Aries Place, Burnaby, BC V3J 7E8, Canada
bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7189

"Father, father, tell me, why do the horsemen ride?
Why do the troopers look so grim by Jamie Graham's side?
Is it true that he's a traitor? But father, tell me why,
There's no' a man among them a' will look him in the eye?"
-Brian McNeil, "Montrose"