RickGross
06-27-2006, 02:34 PM
Linux users familiar with BibleWorks regularly request our company to develop a version of BibleWorks for their platform. While we appreciate the difficulties of using BibleWorks on a current-generation Linux PC emulator, we have chosen not to produce a Linux version, for the following reasons.
Our corporate mission at BibleWorks is to serve the church and Biblical scholarship as thoroughly as we can, given the resources we possess. The small size of BibleWorks, LLC would probably surprise most people; and, while this small size enables the company to produce a useful product at a very reasonable price, it does restrict our capacity to pursue many avenues of development in parallel. While Linux certainly has an increasing following, it remains true that most pastors, seminarians, and Bible scholars use a Windows operating system. Consequently, because we have the resources to serve only one market, we believe we can help the church and Biblical scholarship the most by serving the Windows community
BibleWorks has been able to achieve what it has in part because the company is compact. By making the company's market larger, its staff would have to increase, causing forfeiture of many of the virtues of compactness, such as short communication lines and low overhead. Larger is not always better.
Some have suggested that others be allowed to participate with BibleWorks to construct a Linux implementation. In other settings such a suggestion might be feasible, but BibleWorks has more than two dozen licensing agreements with database publishers that would all have to be extended if others were granted access to these databases. Such unanimous extension would be very time-consuming and most unlikely to succeed. In addition, the BibleWorks source code is heavily proprietary, and extending intellectual property agreements to co-developers would thus be tantamount to expanding the size of the company, which we do not wish to do for the reasons stated above. We would humbly suggest that a more universally helpful use of this graciously offered volunteer talent would be to improve existing Linux PC emulators (for current experience with such emulators for BibleWorks, see http://www.bibleworks.com/content/maclinuxinfo.htm (http://www.bibleworks.com/content/maclinuxinfo.htm)).
We appreciate and are complimented by the kind suggestions and the sincere motivation of those who would like to see more people obtaining access to BibleWorks. We believe, though, that by serving our current market faithfully, we can make available, to the greatest number of people consistent with our resources, access to the excellent capabilities BibleWorks has to offer. Even though not everyone will be so served, we are pleased that at least a large number of people will continue to have a product that will grow with them as God leads them further into the blessings of sincere and deep study of His incomparable Word.
Last update: RH/June 16, 2006
Our corporate mission at BibleWorks is to serve the church and Biblical scholarship as thoroughly as we can, given the resources we possess. The small size of BibleWorks, LLC would probably surprise most people; and, while this small size enables the company to produce a useful product at a very reasonable price, it does restrict our capacity to pursue many avenues of development in parallel. While Linux certainly has an increasing following, it remains true that most pastors, seminarians, and Bible scholars use a Windows operating system. Consequently, because we have the resources to serve only one market, we believe we can help the church and Biblical scholarship the most by serving the Windows community
BibleWorks has been able to achieve what it has in part because the company is compact. By making the company's market larger, its staff would have to increase, causing forfeiture of many of the virtues of compactness, such as short communication lines and low overhead. Larger is not always better.
Some have suggested that others be allowed to participate with BibleWorks to construct a Linux implementation. In other settings such a suggestion might be feasible, but BibleWorks has more than two dozen licensing agreements with database publishers that would all have to be extended if others were granted access to these databases. Such unanimous extension would be very time-consuming and most unlikely to succeed. In addition, the BibleWorks source code is heavily proprietary, and extending intellectual property agreements to co-developers would thus be tantamount to expanding the size of the company, which we do not wish to do for the reasons stated above. We would humbly suggest that a more universally helpful use of this graciously offered volunteer talent would be to improve existing Linux PC emulators (for current experience with such emulators for BibleWorks, see http://www.bibleworks.com/content/maclinuxinfo.htm (http://www.bibleworks.com/content/maclinuxinfo.htm)).
We appreciate and are complimented by the kind suggestions and the sincere motivation of those who would like to see more people obtaining access to BibleWorks. We believe, though, that by serving our current market faithfully, we can make available, to the greatest number of people consistent with our resources, access to the excellent capabilities BibleWorks has to offer. Even though not everyone will be so served, we are pleased that at least a large number of people will continue to have a product that will grow with them as God leads them further into the blessings of sincere and deep study of His incomparable Word.
Last update: RH/June 16, 2006