We've ported MC to Mac. Now we're working on Linux. What's in it for you? This subject came up on the beta board, so I thought we might talk about it here.
Why are we doing it? A couple of reasons. First, it's good for JRiver to broaden our customer base. Second, the OS world is much more fragmented than it was ten years ago when Windows dominated. Third, JRiver has cross platform roots. Our main focus, from 1987 until about 2000, was cross platform. We had a product called ICE.TCP, which connected Windows and Linux. In fact the Windows client software was originally on DOS.
Why should you care?
Matt's first answer was "We'll be in business." I laughed, but it's true. We must do it.
It also makes our code more valuable. It's free of Windows dependencies, so it's much easier to port to any future OS.
We control all our code, so if there's a bug, we can fix it.
In rewriting some of the code, we've also been able to speed it up.
If we can continue to increase our sales significantly, as we have done the last several years, we will be able to hire more talent, and move faster.
