Adobe, maker of major desktop software products such as Photoshop and Acrobat Reader, has begun a quiet effort to become more involved with desktop Linux.
Adobe has largely been on the sidelines of efforts to boost Linux for desktop computers, the vast majority of which run Microsoft Windows. The software maker is now taking a more active role by joining a prominent Linux consortium, working to improve Linux and planning to lead its own open-source development projects, ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com has learned.
Two job postings reveal some of the company's intentions. Adobe wants to hire a director of Linux market development to "identify and evaluate strategies for Adobe in the Linux and open-source desktop market" and to identify projects that "will help improve Linux as a desktop environment." The employee also will "develop strong business relationships with leading Linux distributors and partners".
In addition, Adobe seeks a senior computer scientist who will "become maintainer and/or architect for one or more Adobe-sponsored open-source projects". Hosting open-source projects has become a rite of passage for companies -- IBM, Sun Microsystems and even Microsoft -- hoping to sample and perhaps take advantage of the collaborative programming philosophy.
Adobe has joined the Open Source Development Labs, the industry consortium that employs Linux founder and leader Linus Torvalds. Adobe is active in OSDL's desktop Linux working group, according to a source familiar with Adobe's efforts.
Adobe confirmed its OSDL membership but wouldn't comment on most of its Linux desktop software plans. However, Pam Deziel, an Adobe director of product marketing, did say the company doesn't think there are enough customers today to justify selling Linux versions of its flagship Photoshop or Illustrator graphics programs.
"From a technical maturity perspective, the [Linux] platform is robust," Deziel said. "From a business perspective, the platform has probably not achieved a scale that is aligned with most of Adobe's markets."
Although Linux has caught on for some workstation applications such as programming or processor design, Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg doesn't see Linux as a good idea for graphics software sellers today.
"I would see it being very difficult to sell those applications. At the low-end side, there are simply too many free apps with similar functionality, and at the high-end side, the market is very small," Gartenberg said. "People willing to pay $500 to $800 for an application usually have no problem running Mac OS or Windows."
In one more limited area, Deziel said, customers are interested, though: an updated Linux version of Acrobat Reader, which is used to view Portable Document Format (PDF) files. "We would like the version of the Linux reader to be updated from 5.0, and we're working on that," she said. Adobe offers version 6.0.1 for Windows users today.
