![](https://seccdn.libravatar.org/avatar/93cf6319a8961d144cf9d0dc09f5e319.jpg?s=120&d=mm&r=g)
Adobe did a beta of FrameMaker version 5.6, which was mostly usable, but this was after they'd released 6.0 for all other platforms... It was well-received, but revealed two problems that caused Adobe to yank the beta and close the project: a) It turned out that most of the immediate market for the Linux version was people who already use it on Windoze or Mac, so there was very little net gain for Adobe --- for every Linux license they sold, they'd no longer sell a Win or Mac license. No fun there. b) FrameMaker costs about $600 USD, and the history of Linux has led to a mass of users who expect not only open-source apps, but free (pay-no-money) apps. This was not a very enticing market from their perspective. Like pushing string uphill, and not getting paid for your trouble -- attractive to enthusiasts and masochists only... There was considerable work left, just to do a proper release of 5.6, and a s**tload of work to get a Linux version of 6.x released. It wasn't viable. Not even remotely. Unlike people who run Solaris and Windoze, Linux users were not generally prepared to cough up the big bucks. The core of the existing FrameMaker market is vertical... big corporations and government departments. The bulk of the Linux market -- desktop -- is individuals, most of whom don't have the bucks (after all, why was a free OS so attractive in the first place??). As well, the OS is not merely ONE cumbersome and slowly moving target, it is a fragmented bunch of fast-moving targets (all those distros, the options of GNOME, KDE, other, etc.). It would be somewhat lucrative for the Adobe third-party industry that sells training and some add-ons for the few things that Frame does not do marvelously. But, that still doesn't put revenue in the Adobe corporate coffers. Thus, there was never a release, and there probably won't be until Adobe change their entire business model. I'm not holding my breath. Finally, somebody mentioned the possibility of locating a cracked copy of the beta, with the lockout removed. Well, try to put yourself in the position of somebody who actually PAID for a legal copy for Windows ($900+ of my Canadian bucks, by the way), and who would be using it to earn a living... i.e., depending upon it. Also, keep in mind that the beta was a full version behind (soon to be two, if rumor is accurate) and a little broken. All existing docs would have to be downgraded, since 5.6 cannot import 6.0 docs. You need to be in 6.0 to "Save-as..." the earlier version. Any cow-orkers and collaborators would need to forgo the extremely handy book-level features of their copies of version 6, etc., etc. In other words, I would be happy to search for that cracked beta if I was just a geek who got a kick out of such things, but I'm a guy with a mortgage who depends on his tools to satisfy his employer's [mostly] reasonable demands -- and to get my job done in finite time, so that I can also have a life. :-) Regards, /kevin On Thu, 2002-03-28 at 13:23, schuetzen - RKBA! wrote:
On 28 Mar 2002 10:09:43 -0500, Kevin McLauchlan
wrote: But, Frame is not going to be ported to Linux and I'm trying to escape Windoze. I kept hearing about how various word processors on Linux have finally "arrived", and I want to believe it. And then I try them, only to find out that an enthusiast's understanding of "arrived" is a lot more forgiving and a lot less demanding than mine -- where it's my livelihood.
am I out in the ether or hasn't Adobe ported its software to Linux.?? If so, that ain't a bad way to go. Actually, an old copy of Wordstar or the Legacy version could be handled in Wine or ?? and do most of what you want done. Check on Adobe. Can't beat the way it handles tables and pix and so on.