And what leads to the vendors caring? Demand.

There is no demand for this software on linux. Professionals have better things to do than choose their software based on ideology.

But professionals now have a very good, non-ideological reason to choose a Linux OS over Windows. How many professionals are comfortable with an operating system that collects and sends everything they load, type or save to Microsoft and their corporate and government partners?

Has it actually been proven that this happens? Vague wording in a EULA isn't proof.

In some cases (e.g. legal and medical services) the very potential may be illegal in some countries -- and the proof could lose not just someone's business but their license to practice.

Any good examples of closed source applications being financially successful on Linux? How do the opportunities on Linux compare with investing in applications for other platforms?

It's not so much about "caring" as about the ability to pay programmers to create profitable software.

I think TurboPrint is pretty successful. It is a good printing system. I purchased it many years ago and it is still available to this day.

http://www.turboprint.de

More commercial applications:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Proprietary_commercia...

http://lin-app.com

http://www.techdrivein.com/2011/05/10-commercial-apps-for-li...

http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxCommercialApplications...

Thanks for the links, but it doesn't look very promising.

YoLinux looks old and has some non-working links, so I'm not sure it's being maintained. (Indeed, one link leads to Windows and Mac OS X software, not Linux.)

Lin-App, the most promising site, hasn't updated "What's up" since 15.04.2011. (Also, its most recent comments are 2 and 11 months ago.)

As it says in the URL, the TechDriven story is also from 2011, and the programs are from Lin-App.

It's hard to see the signs of a vibrant ecosystem....

Linux + proprietary 3D graphics software is very popular in large shops (ILM, Pixar, DreamWorks, etc.). 3D graphics, CAD, etc. in general tends to have much stronger roots in the Unix world (by way of IRIX, with GNU/Linux being the most common migration path) than Windows.

Basically, for the big names in computer-animated movies, the Year of the Linux Desktop has already happened.

Yes, that market looks healthy, as far as I can see....

Matlab does quite well?

Runs on Windows and Mac OS X as well, so it's a good cross-platform example. But there's no way to tell how much money it makes from each OS....

Loads. Mainly very expensive high end niche scientific packages (scientists tend to use Linux at a higher percentage than ordinary people so the market percentages are more favourable).

I'm thinking stuff that is available on Linux as well as Windows/OSx.

Examples include Matlab, the Avizo image analysis suite, a certain simulation package that was described as AllSIM in a controversial discussion relating to CERN last week on HN and Maya (not scientific but it does illustrate the sort of high end very expensive niche stuff that tends to have Linux versions).

Steam

Linux users are only 0.89% of the Steam user base, which is 95.79% Windows....

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey