[linux-audio-dev] Re: Behringer

[Dave Robillard]

On Sat, 2004-04-12 at 09:18 -0600, Jan Depner wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-12-03 at 19:58, Dave Robillard wrote:
> 
> > Your initial reply to me, which was not about the issue at hand
> > whatsoever - you called me obnoxious and insulting.  That counts as a
> > personal attack in my books, and immediately forced the discussion in a
> > useless direction.  Point is you made comments about me personally, not
> > my statements (always the sign of someone with no argument to stand on,
> > BTW)
> > 
>     I didn't call you obnoxious.  I asked you to stop being obnoxious. 
> A fine difference I admit but a difference anyway.  You *did* insult a
> number of people by calling their ideas ignorant so, in my book, you
> started the personal attacks.

As I have already explained in detail, I called the _opinion_ ignorant
because it fails to take into consideration numerous factors involved
(actually every factor except "duh, I want card to work").

That is MY PERSONAL OPINION of that idea.  Frankly, it's not my problem
if people find my opinion insulting.  And even if they do it's hardly a
valid reason to not express an opinion.  Every opinion insults someone
out there.  It is irrelevant. 

So in summary, I don't like your opinion, and you don't like mine.
Good, great, grand, who cares. 


> Now, on to more important things.

Agreed.  <end previous pointless discussion>

> I agree with almost everything
> else you've said in this post and I think it's the right direction to go
> in.  The one thing I disagree with is that we *all* care about personal
> freedom.  It's just that some of us are a bit more pragmatic about it. 
> We do have to live in the real world after all.

I said the exact same thing, thus we are in agreement.  Yay.

> > Why don't we find out the best way we can attempt to convince RME open
> > is the way to go, and have as many of us as possible contribute?
> > 
> > Options I can think of:
> > 
> > - Mass letter campaign, with a template letter.  Good, because it's
> > easy, also good because it gives the impression of many individual
> > customers being dissatisfied.  This letter could be a "please open your
> > driver" letter, or an "I'm not buying any of your products ever (again)"
> > letter, or some combination of both.  Either way, the point that a
> > closed driver is a much less desirable (though not inacceptable, at
> > least to some of us) must be made (some companies just don't "get it").
> > It's probably better to ask for specs.. we really have no right to be
> > demanding RME do more work.
> > 
> 
>     This is probably the best option.  I think you could also point out
> that the Linux community as a whole is interested in finding a vendor
> that they can trust and work with.  A vendor that works with us on an
> open basis would probably engender a hell of a lot of customer loyalty
> (along the lines of Mac users ;-)  The only negative is that it's hard
> to fight inertia.  Getting enough people to do this could be tricky.

Enough right now would be tricky, yes.  But in time, the effect would
definitely be significant.  I personally think Linux Audio will become a
pretty important thing in time (at least on par with Windows anyway,
which noone even takes seriously as an audio platform yet a lot of audio
companies care about it a whooole lot).

If Linux becomes tempting as an audio platform, when newbs go to switch
and the entire community says "<companyX> is by far your best option for
an audio interface" because we get along with said company, it can only
be a good thing.  Already Linux CDs are being shipped with more
mainstread not-linux-specific music magazines - it's happening already.

That's what we need to make RME understand.  They used to be <companyX>.
They aren't any more.

> > - Forum posting.  Apparently there's an RME forum?  Never seen it
> > personally.  Possibly better than email letters because it's viewable by
> > the public and they can't just ignore all of us.  Plus a productive
> > conversation might result.
> > 
>     As long as we keep it respectable.

Well, seems Marek is already doing the forum thing, so maybe that's the
best option?  The public-ness of it is a plus anyway.


-DR-