> SB> Out of blue, why is that Linux now runs stable on six (6)
> SB> different platforms but commercial software like Star,
> SB> Corel, Adobe and IBM, just to mention a few, are only
> SB> available for ix86? Are there any political or technical
> SB> reasons for it?
>
> There are some possible technical issues. For example, Alpha and
> PowerPC processors do some things in radically different ways than
> x86 processors. As a result, sloppy code will break on these
And sloppy programming includes the tendency (of companies doing a quick
Linux port) to use Wine (not even winelib) to make regular windows
applications run on Linux. Seen that with Corel, and it wasn't a bit
pretty in the beginning. Seeing that no company is willing to dedicate
enough resources to a clean x86 port, resources for 'fringe' ports will be
marginal.
You are encouraged to write to these companies and educate them on the
facts, and ask for support for multiple architectures. You are equally
encouraged to work on replacement software under a free license (some in
the Debian camp would say you should mainly focus on the latter).
Michael
