answered
2014-12-27 00:10:23 +0300
sidv 1516 ●13 ●20 ●32
Adding on to the perfectly correct other answer, I see the biggest porting issue more in the area of usability. Without a hardware keyboard, console based programs are from a mild nuisance to a pain to operate. But even with a keyboard, they are, face the facts, not the most accessible for the vast majority of users. Now codes with a GUI will likely have porting issues due to the Wayland vs X11 and QT stuff that is featured on the Jolla devices. But even if these could be sorted out technically: do we really want to operate interfaces that were designed for an environment with multiple mouse buttons (and a keyboard) by touch?
Hence, the biggest issue is not portability of old stuff (as also pointed out so correctly by r0kk3rz answer from a different angle) it is developing a new software ecosystem and new interfaces that integrate well with design "guidelines"/ideas of Sailfish. Only with such applications Jolla/SailfishOS becomes an option for the average Joe (which they'll need to be to stay afloat!). I for one thank each and every developer for native QT applications but I am also grateful for the Android support Sailfish has, it's a practical, temporary workaround until everything is either Web based or has a native app.