Linux is second class citizen as far as Swift is concerned for sure. I had to jump through a few hoops to make sure my library works on both Linux and iOS.
BSD licensed code, 100% written in Swift (I went through the trouble of writing the compression code in Swift since the compression classes were missing from the Linux distribution and some older versions of iOS ) - give it a try.
We made some decent money with our library however since we live in very expensive area I do some consulting as well.
If you are single and live in not so expensive place making software components could be a viable business. Just chose something that will not become obsolete in 2 or 3 years.
We are in the PDF space that is quite crowded but still much better than Flash (for example) that is becoming less and less relevant.
If I had to start today I would probably look for some security related stuff.
I can clearly see why this kind of thinking may be appealing to some people.
The question is - how is this clean break and leaving "the baggage" behind going work?
I can't stop thinking about this imaginary company:
They have Java/Linux based system that is not selling very well so they hire new CEO. The new CEO announces to the company's customers that the Java/Linux is "burning platform". He fires all 100 Java developers and hires 100 C#/.NET developers ...
Somehow I think this is not going to end up well ...
A competent CEO (or CTO) will try to sell the new platform to developers by pointing out the advantages. He would hire maybe 25 experienced .NET developers to replace the 25 developers that left because they believe more in Java/Linux in the long term. He may have to let 10 developers go because they just don't want to learn anything new ... You end up with a team that still has the business knowledge, is committed to moving to the new platform and has people with experience about it.
Meanwhile you still make money selling the Java application until you are ready with the .NET one.
Isn't this 101 common business sense?
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Can you not see how the clean slate approach where you leave behind all of the Linux/Qt/Symbian baggage could be appealing ?
Is this the common wisdom these days?
Experienced software developers who are good at C++/Qt can't learn themselves to use C#/.NET?
They have to be trained? And that's impossible to do?
If we are talking about full time employees - they should have been given the option to work with .NET if this is what they wanted.
Also - employees have to take responsibility for Nokia's previous strategy? Weren't you just talking about those employees like an easily replaceable cogs? Get rid of a few "C++/Qt"s and get a few new "C#/.NET" ones.
Regular employees are responsible for managing their own career not the company.
About Elop - his statement about the burning platform reminds me about the Léo Apoteker public announcement about dumping the PC division of HP. Even if we assume both decisions about new strategic direction were correct - the public announcements were not very helpful to say the least ...
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1) Implying that Elop is not competent or responsible because he fired the team rather than "talking to them" is ridiculous. It is the only sensible option. Qt developers are not .Net developers and retraining so many at one time is impossible.
2) Finding developers for Nokia's strategy won't be a problem. There are lots of .Net developers around. And I am sure more than a few would be interested in the mobile space.
https://github.com/edragoev1/pdfjet
so do the Java, Swift and Go versions.
While the docs are somewhat sparse, Example_45 shows how to create PDF/UA compliant PDF.