[linux-audio-dev] Hello - FYI - intro

[Paul Davis]

>My linux thought is that the main difference between linux and 
>windows is that under windows everything is packaged i.e. that 
>one installation will actually get that desired product to work - 

this isn't really true. just drop by any of the windows-centric audio
forums on the web - people have problems all the time with their
installation of nuendo, sonar, cubase, protools etc. etc. 

>while under linux a lot more time is spent on finding the correct 
>patches mixes matches reading than end time using/producing. 

this is a recognized problem, and people have been working on it for a
couple of years. if you switch to a linux distribution or
distribution+addon that specializes in multimedia, its arguably easier
to install whatever audio/video sofware exists than it is under
windows. i use planet ccrma on top of fedora to make my life much
easier, even though i am a full time developer.

the remaining weak points for linux are the state of driver
support and kernel latency handling. not whether we have drivers, but
how well they work. there are many hardware configurations that seem
to work well enough under windows but are mostly useless under linux.

--p