[21]

It was a long time ago. But some searching today, official response from Adobe (2010):

> Again, we've done the research. The profits aren't there -- very few Linux users are willing to pay for commercial software. And the cost of entry is still high because of the fragmented Linux landscape. The Linux world has to change before commercial software will have reason to invest in Linux ports. And we haven't seen much real change in the Linux market in several years.

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/487814

> At the height of the Dot-Com era, dozens of startups tried selling proprietary applications for Linux -- and not one survived more than a couple of years. Even Adobe, after releasing a popular beta of FrameMaker, withdrew it from circulation after a poll suggested that users were unwilling to pay for applications.

http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Off-the-Beat-Bruc...

[techntoke]

Guys.. just trust us. We're Adobe, and the good guys. Remember how awesome Flash was?!? /s

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Flash was awesome. It created the interactive multimedia web long before HTML5 existed. Many animators, game developers, and other artists started their career as teenagers working in Flash and posting to Newgrounds.

It wasn't perfect software by any means, but perfect is the enemy of good anyways.

[SmellyGeekBoy]

"The height of the dot-com era" was 18 years ago, Linux has come on a long way since then - not to mention the (perceived?) quality of Windows and macOS going downhill.

[rootusrootus]

Even fewer people in my extended group of friends and family are aware of Linux now than 18 years ago, and that is saying something. The only people who know anything about it are geeks, and we are a minuscule amount of the population.

[_emacsomancer_]

I think fewer people are aware of underlying software generally. Presumably there are at most four categories for lots of end-users: "PCs", "Apples/Macs", "iPhones", "Androids". (Of course, more people are using Linux in some form or other now than they were 18 years ago, whether they know it or not.)

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

For one thing there are a lot more distros, two different display servers, and several more packaging formats. Not exactly countering their point about fragmentation are we? At least we got that sound situation mostly sorted out.