> I think that is an issue with Linux generally. Is there really a good word
> processor, for example?
That depends on what you define as "good", but there are an ever
increasing range of them available.
> I don't know how to get software vendors to support Linux. Certainly, if
> platform-independent languages, especially Java, become more popular, this will
> solve the problem neatly. Otherwise, the only way that vendors will support
> Linux as a native platform is if the market demand becomes sufficient from a
> critical mass of users, and doing so would be economically justifiable.
That is a self remedying problem. It is getting easier and easier to
convince people to provide Linux versions of their software. The
amateur radio market on the other hand is a very different kettle of
fish. For the amateur radio market what we need are more programmers to
write open-source ("free") software.
Java is already proving itself to be gasping its last breaths. I doubt
it will be Java that will solve any of these problems.
Terry