> Public pledge, if backblaze releases a linux client, even if it's command line only and requires that I manually edit an XML file, I'll purchase a 1 year subscription.
Consider how many Linux users would need to do this to a) pay for the developer time to write/maintain the client and b) pay for the support time for Linux issues
I'm a Backblaze engineer, and we keep our one 'C' and 'C++' cross platform source tree building on three platforms every day: 1) Windows, 2) Macintosh, and 3) Debian Linux. (We also have iOS and some other future projects but I'm ommitting them from this discussion.) We use the Debian Linux binaries in our datacenter in production. The only parts that are missing are an installer and a GUI (or we could skip the GUI and let you hand edit the XML file you can already find on the Mac and Windows versions).
There are a couple of technical problems I'd like to overcome in the next 12 months and get the Linux client out there. One technical problem is how many versions and flavors of Linux to support. For example, we're going to ship binaries for Debian simply because it's the flavor we use in our own datacenter, but after than we'll need CentOS, RedHat, Ubuntu, probably Gentoo, others?
I'm not sure I understand the state of how others release shrink wrap Linux products in 2014? We could require customers to compile it, but that seems kind of horrid and very unlike Backblaze. If you aren't familiar with us, we are known as being friendly and easy to use. Backblaze is not a developer tool for scripting backups, you simply install Backblaze and it backs up your entire computer in order to be "easy". It was the only way we could be sure we had everything you needed. This is also why we charge a flat rate of $5/month. If we charged "per GByte" we would be accused of backing up everything to jack up our profits. :-)
There are other things to consider too: developer community goodwill, people that may not be on Linux now, but only use systems that are cross-platform (to curb lock-in to a particular OS), etc.
How much revenue is Atom for Linux expected to generate for Github?
Yes it is. Assuming your IT guy at work runs linux, then when you ask him: What backup should I get, if his answer is backblaze that brings a lot of business to you.
Personally I assume they don't release a linux client because then people would backup their server to it.
Those IT guys don't need to use Backblaze on Linux to recommend it; they're going to recommend whatever "just works" so they don't have to "go down the rabbit hole".
When I still used Android, I would recommend iPhones all the time to people. Why? Because it just works, and I don't want to be stuck troubleshooting their Android issues for the life of their phone.
Consider how many Linux users would need to do this to a) pay for the developer time to write/maintain the client and b) pay for the support time for Linux issues