[linux-audio-dev] Re: What Parts of Linux Audio Simply Work Great?

[Dave Phillips]

Jay Vaughan wrote:

> such opinion-cults are all the FOSS world -has- for a PR front.  this 
> one happens to be negative.  its quite possible, however, that a 
> counter to his position would work *positively*, if we were prepared 
> to organize it a bit.  i'd be quite happy, actually, to submit to /. a 
> "never mind jwz, linux audio rocks!" style article which puts the 
> actual -facts- on the table for anyone wanting to check out linux 
> audio.  blowback PR works, if timed right, and delivered properly. 
> maybe you'll be thanking jwz in a week or two ..

I assume you've already seen my 18 articles (one per month) published 
on-line for the Linux Journal ? Or perhaps you've read the articles I've 
written for the hard-copy LJ, Linux Magazine-UK or the Computer Music 
Journal ? Every letter of that output deals with Linux audio (and even 
some video). It's almost all out there on the Net for anyone to find and 
read. It's certainly one measure of jwz's incompetence that he didn't 
bother reading any of it.

The -facts- have been on the table for a couple years now, but if folks 
like jwz don't come to lunch you can't get 'em to to eat. This guy gives 
me the impression that he'd go to Bordeaux and bitch about the wine not 
tasting like Boone's Farm and having to use a corkscrew to open the 
bottle. "Fucking morons, what were they thinking ?! I can go to Wal Mart 
and buy a perfectly good bottle of BF that's got an easy-to-use 
screw-off cap, no fuss or muss, just get home, unscrew that cap and 
start guzzling. Now how in the world can those Bordeaux snobs think they 
can compare with that kind of ease of use ? A fucking corkscrew, for 
God's sake !"

Frankly, guys like jwz don't do their homework for shit. It reminds of 
the guys I hear from for the first time who don't stint telling me how 
hard they've worked at this mess, *but* :

    They assume they don't need to read directions, they already know 
enough about the subject (soi-disant smart fellows).
    They don't correspond on the available mail-lists, blogs, and wikis.
    They don't seem very interested in actually solving issues, but 
they're awfully self-righteous about their bitch.

Jay, I've lost track of the number of jwz types I've already encountered 
in ten years of using Linux. I'm sure you'd get a good laugh from the 
old press slagging the efforts of the developers of Mozilla, OOo, and 
even Linux itself. They all started with the premise that "[your 
hobbyhorse here] will never be [available | any good | viable] under 
[your OS of choice here]". Boilerplate crapola is not PR, it's a quick 
ticket to a writer's discredit.

I read over jwz's blog and realized I'd read his stuff before now. His 
comments re: Linux video were useless, and his blog is a blowfest. He 
likes to emphasize his point by swearing and denigrating the work at 
hand. If that constitutes a methology for the respect due an "opnion 
maker" then I agree with Dave R and will add that the people who find 
jwz enlightening need to get out of the cave. To paraphrase the man 
himself, he's a fucking moron.

Back in the Old Days we had a saying I've found quite useful throughout 
my life: If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. 
Linux audio has grown phenomenally over the decade I've been using it, 
but that ten years is only 1/3 the time commercial audio and MIDI 
software has been in development (I sarted using music software in 
1985). Seen in a competitive perspective of course we're "behind", 
though I find it difficult to believe that someone can think of JACK and 
ALSA as "behind" anything similar in the Win/Mac world.

Alas, I don't find this particular thread very interesting, it takes 
time from much more important things, and paying attention to someone 
like jwz simply perpetuates the problem. Unless I see evident proof that 
someone is actively and seriously trying to make things better (and make 
better things) then I'll send his or her bitchfests straight to 
/dev/null, right back where they came from in the first place.

> if we allow the falsehoods regarding linux audio to be spread by his 
> infamy/fame, whiney or not, washed out or not, we're doing ourselves 
> (audio hackers) a disservice.  is it not poignant enough for you that 
> "the OSS guys" are using the jwz attack on ALSA to pimp their way of 
> doing things?  should FOSS authors really eat themselves in such 
> ways?  screw that!  just tell -me- what works, and i'll make sure 
> folks know about it! 

Such works have already been written and published by Daniel James, Alex 
Prokoudine, Matthias Nagorni, Frank Neumann, Aaron Trumm, myself, and 
others. Journals such as LJ, SoS, and Keyboards(DE) have run excellent 
articles about Linux audio. The third annual international Linux audio 
conference just took place in Karlsruhe. From my POV things are 
progressing nicely in the Linux audio world, and I can honestly say that 
jwz appears to have no influence at all within this community.

Btw, I submitted the announcement of LAC2005 to Slashdot, but they 
didn't put it on their front page. The /. crowd is phenomenally ignorant 
regarding audio issues, and even woefully ignorant about the advances 
being made in Linux audio. I hoped that /. would want to help address 
that ignorance by publicizing the event, but I overestimated their 
editors perspicacity.

OTOH Don Marti at LJ is intensely devoted to improving the situation and 
has told me that he'll run almost anything I send him. Upcoming articles 
include user-level looks at ALSA and JACK, a report from LAC2005, and a 
lengthy update on Csound5. Interesting that a general-purpose magazine 
should show so much more awareness than the more dedicated music 
merchandising magazines (Keyboard, EM, Guitar Player), but that's 
probably understandable in the light of their advertsing revenue streams 
(i.e., it does not behoove them to run articles dedicated to free music 
software).

> look, PR is a big problem with linux audio.  taking -some- degree of 
> responsibility for it is a step to solve that.  not all problems with 
> linux audio are purely technical; mostly, it seems, its education. 

See above.

> all good education efforts start with overt PR about the subject, 
> presenting reasons why its worth educating oneself further .. a shiny 
> boot-CD DAW 'That Just Works' (tm) will attract far more users than 
> endless reams of archives describing 'how to fix things yourself'. 
> hell, a list of known working configs from various well known 
> individuals may just be all we need.  my audio system may not work 
> right now, but a boot-CD/list of known working systems will serve to 
> provide hope when there may be very little.
>
> describe the working systems, promote the solutions not the problems.

Like on the ALSA Wiki, the MusE wiki, the linuxmusician site, in the 
articles I've written, or... ?

> jwz -does- have a point.  its not the 90's.  he really shouldn't have 
> had such problems with getting his freakin' audio working.  its not a 
> technical issue; its an organizational one.  counter his argument with 
> success, and the whole scene gets turned around: suddenly, linux audio 
> is cooler than it was a week ago.

Again I ask: Do you mean success like Mirror Image Studios, or like 
Fervent's Studio To Go, or like the AGNULA/Demudi and Planet CCRMA 
distros ? Or do you mean success like the hours of music made with free 
software that I've heard at the LAC ? Or does success here mean the 
software design achievements such as Common Music, Csound5, Ardour, 
ZynAddSubFX, et cetera ?

Maybe jwz is not as savvy as he seems to think he is. Perhaps he is very 
knowledgable where screensavers are concerned, but he's not too bright 
in this particular domain. However, there's no way he's going to 
announce himself to his readership as a not especially bright guy where 
Linux audio is concerned, it doesn't fit his style, and he has a 
readership who expect him to behave in the way he's already defined 
himself. I don't get from him any sense of extending community, and as 
far as I can tell he just wants to become notorious.

No-one here is lying about how they use Linux audio software. The proofs 
are in the dozens of recordings now available on line, listed in this 
and other mail-lists. You want to promote Linux audio software, you'll 
likely do the best job by producing and distributing a disc of music 
made with absolutely free software (I think such a project is already in 
the works). When the proof is so audible that even a jwz can hear it, 
then people will be more interested in learning how they too can achieve 
such results with free software, instead of listening to the rants of a 
fucking moron.

Best regards,

Dave Phillips

PS: Jay, I hope you understand that this message is not a screed against 
your position or opinions. I agree with a much of what you've stated, 
especially regarding the need for even greater positive publicity, but I 
think that you may have missed a few things in your own background 
research while studying the Linux audio scene.

Btw, I use Linux audio software daily here in my studio. I use it to 
arrange music for my students, to record my own music, to play and 
analyze music, and so on. My most heavily-used applications include 
Ardour, seq24, Hydrogen, Solfege, Snd, QSynth, ZynAddSubFX, TiMidity++, 
amSynth, XMMS, Common Music, Csound5, and of course QJackCtl. I also use 
a variety of other Linux apps for printing lyric and tab sheets, for 
tuning instruments, and for burning practie discs for my students. I 
also use vi, emacs, and OOo for my writing assignments and occasional 
coding. For my purposes Linux rocks hard and steady. Maybe if jwz had 
bothered to ask me for some help his experienecs might have been better. 
Neither myself nor my works are invisible, I'm not that difficult to 
find, and I believe there are even a few people on this list who might 
testify that I will try to help anyone who needs the assistance.