[linux-audio-dev] Re: Akai's MPC4000 Sampler/Workstation Open Source Project

[Renich Bon Ćirić]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Thursday 27 July 2006 19:34, Renich Bon Ćirić wrote:
> [...]
>   
>>> From my viewpoint, Akai's legal dept., who is obviously controlling
>>> what Renich can say, will see to it that the product fails.  Its up to
>>> Akai to make a liar out of me.  If they would join the open source camp
>>> by supporting the coders with all the info, publicly available to any
>>> and all, that they will need to write the drivers this device will
>>> need, distribute this OS under the GPL with a server that lets *anyone*
>>> download it for free, or on a mailable cd for a couple of bucks
>>> american, while selling the hardware for $1000 to $1500, and watch the
>>> hardware sales blossum like our wild flowers along the interstate. 
>>> Thats because the unshackled coders will write stuff that stretches the
>>> limits of what the hardware can do, just to see if they can.  Its
>>> rather like climbing Mt. Everest, because its there. :)
>>>       
>> Well, I think we are getting a bit... carried away. I am not from akai,
>> in fact, my purpose is to ask akai to help us help them because there OS
>> sucks. It has too many bugs... that's the purpose of all this. If they
>> refuse, then I am willing to start an OS myself. That's all.
>>     
>
> First one has to open an effective channel of communications in order to 
> get close enough to somebody who would know what an NDA is, something I've 
> tried several times over the decades with only one success, usually you 
> find somebody co-operative who makes you think you might have a chance at 
> getting some assistance, but 3 days later you call back to confirm a 
> detail and that person has been fired or transferred out of that dept., 
> primarily one suspects for the simple act of getting too close to the 
> customer.
>
> However, Renish, if you are not representing Akai in this, then why the 
> secrecy?
>
> Akai is going to want to know why you want to know all this stuff, and just 
> to play cma, I wouldn't even try to put a coat of varnish on it.  Tell 
> them straight up that the hardware is great but the OS sucks and you want 
> to fix it, writing it from scratch in a clean room scenario, meaning you 
> will never see a copy of their src, just the specs that writing to such 
> and such an address writes to what register, and what every bit or byte 
> written makes it do what.  AIUI, then you can GPL it, or if no GPL'd 
> libraries or anything like that is used, you could make it proprietary.  
> But we both know you'll get a lot more help if its open and GPL'd.
>
> And, just to get some stability, for every register you write to using 
> their specs for whats written vs whats supposed to happen, I'd take the 
> time to verify that the results you get and their specs agree.  I've found 
> more than one bug, a couple of them fairly serious, in the hardware using 
> that exersize it all technique.
>
> I expect you will do whatever and however you want in any event, so I'll go 
> away and see if my rocking chair still rocks, or something. :)
>   

Did I say that this was a secret project? I have sent the urls to the 
official Open Source initiative site and the forum where it all started. 
I will sent them again.

# Forum
http://www.mpc-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=54825
# Site
http://www.woralelandia.com/openmpc/

And of course it would be GPL, at least from our side and if Akai agrees 
to help, they would have to decide what kind of licence, still, I would 
fight for the GPL at all time.

Actually, I'm not a programmer or have any direct contact with Akai. I'm 
only trying to organize things. And I need collaborators!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-dev/attachments/20060728/03e99aed/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: renich.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 390 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.linuxaudio.org/pipermail/linux-audio-dev/attachments/20060728/03e99aed/attachment.vcf>