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[AA6YQ]

For those of use who provide free software to the amateur radio community, the fact that the small MAC customer base might be willing to spend more on software is completely irrelevant.

And much of the free open source software works cross-platform, and can be built from GitHub repositories to run on either Raspberry Pi's or MacOS.  Not stuck on just Windows, if written properly.

Bullshit!

The added testing alone makes continuous development of an application that runs on all three three platforms dramatically slower than continuously developing a Windows-only application. Why would a developer of free applications do that for a tiny increase in available users?

[N6YWU]

Why would a developer of free applications do that for a tiny increase in available users?

For the same reason that they develop free applications for ham radio at all, where the number of potential users rounded to the nearest digit percentage is zero (compared to iPhone games and other categories with a vastly larger number of users).

And why develop free and open source apps strictly for a commercial and closed source OS (Windows), instead of for Linux?  Seems counterproductive.   For programmers working as a business or for a commercial entity, it makes sense, as there's revenue potential in the Windows marketplace.

[AA6YQ]

Why would a developer of free applications do that for a tiny increase in available users?

For the same reason that they develop free applications for ham radio at all, where the number of potential users rounded to the nearest digit percentage is zero (compared to iPhone games and other categories with a vastly larger number of users).

There are tens of thousands of worldwide users of DXLab applications. Significantly reducing DXLab's development velocity in order to gain a thousand more users would be stupid.

And why develop free and open source apps strictly for a commercial and closed source OS (Windows), instead of for Linux? 

Because Windows has a much larger market share than MAC or Linux, and supports a straightforward distribution model; users can upgrade any DXLab application with one mouse click.

Seems counterproductive.   For programmers working as a business or for a commercial entity, it makes sense, as there's revenue potential in the Windows marketplace.

The only good reasons to develop free ham software for Linux is that you're a Linux aficionado, or that that you're building a real-time system that the Windows scheduler can't support. There's nothing wrong with those reasons; just don't get confused about the motivation.

[N6YWU]

Because Windows has a much larger market share than MAC or Linux ...

But not significantly larger than Android or iOS, both for which the market share is growing faster than Windows.  So if you just want large market share numbers, those are good platforms to target.  Over a Billion mobile phone users who download apps, and iPhones are nearly half of all mobile phones in the U.S.  Most radio amateurs have a smartphone.  Plus the App store pays out 10's of Billions USD in total developer revenue.  And my iPhone has a faster CPU than the median shack PC.

Which is one of the reasons I develop iOS apps for ham radio. 

[AA6YQ]

Because Windows has a much larger market share than MAC or Linux ...

But not significantly larger than Android or iOS, both for which the market share is growing faster than Windows. 

There is nowhere near enough screen space available on most Android or IOS platforms to effectively host DXLab.

So if you just want large market share numbers, those are good platforms to target.

Nowhere did I say that a large market share was the only OS requirement.

[N6YWU]

There is nowhere near enough screen space available on most Android or IOS platforms to effectively host DXLab.

How much screen space do you need?  I can AirPlay from an iPhone app to an AppleTV at 1080P, and put the display up on my 43" Sony TV.  Or for pure pixel count, an iPad Pro has around 5k, and can render an SDR waterfall at up to 120 Hz.

In any case, I plan to do try some SOTA ops this summer, so am targeting my UI, not for large displays, but for very little screen real estate, so that everything needed for digital mode ops fits in pockets (except for masts).

[AA6YQ]

There is nowhere near enough screen space available on most Android or IOS platforms to effectively host DXLab.

How much screen space do you need?

Take a look at slides 25-116 of DXing with DXLab.