why open source drivers [was Re: [linux-audio-user] Re: [linux-audio-dev] RME is no more]

[Mark Knecht]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 02:25:09 +0100, Marek Peteraj <marpet at naex.sk> wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-11-28 at 21:31, Mark Knecht wrote:

> 
> One nice example. Korg 1212 i/o, worked under win98, doesn't under winXP
> because korg does not provide support for it. There is an alsa driver
> for it now(and specs), so basically the life of that card is extended to
> eternity.
> 
> There are more such damn good reasons for open source drivers. People
> just don't shout too loud. :)

Fair enough. There are companies here in Silicon Valley that take over
'end of life' chip designs and manufacturer them for a while to help
customers, but there isn't much money in it most of the time, just as
there is probably no financial reason for Korg to support that card. I
didn't like it when DigiDesign said they weren't going to continue to
support the 001 forever and I was forced into buying an 002 or going
away from Windows. Unortunately there was no other platform that
maintained my music investment as well so I stuck with Digi.

That's the nature of technology. It gets outdated. Not too many
companies making buggy whips anymore either...

>> However how did Marek end up being an RME customer when
> > there was (as far as I know) never any support for this device under
> > Linux, nor anyone even really saying there would be?
> 
> Actually not quite, it seemed as if there would be support, Thomas
> wanted to do the driver. I just invested too much trust in RME. My
> fault.

And I am very sorry about that. It is a disappointment I'm sure.
You're a long ways away. If it was more practical I'd probably buy the
unit from you. I have uses. I'm sure others will too. You'll sell it
and get good money. Chalk the loss up to learning and
remember..."Trust, but verify".

> 
> > In my case I Was
> > told that supporting the HDSP 9652 would be a non-issue based on the
> > DigiFace working. It turned out to be true, but then again it took
> > about a year to become really useful to me, and even today doesn't
> > work as well as it does under Windows. How did he end up with this
> > device and in this position?
> >
> > I somehow don't think this is RME's fault...
> 
> If RME did the drivers for your HDSP 9652 then you could directly
> contact them and ask them for support. I'm sure Thomas would help you
> aswell if he had the card, and that's the problem. In such case claiming
> that they do support alsa is just plain unfair.

???? RME never 'supported' the card under Linux. The 'supported' the
developers by providing technical info. I did not purchase the card
because of RME telling me it would be OK to use the card under Linux.
They never stated such things. It was Linux developers telling me it
woul dbe OK to buy it as they would support it. (Not Thomas - others)
However it was Linux USERS telling me to be careful and maybe not buy
it. They had been through, I think, what I went through 2-3 years ago,
and what you are going through now. Hardware support under Linux is
hit and miss.

Without Thomas's help I would have been completely dead. He did a
stellar job with the information he was given. I personalyl think that
information was incomplete, and intentionally so from RME, but I
cannot prove that. All we know is tht the HDSP 9652 did not work
completely as their info said, and that we were not given at that time
and info explaining failures caused by firmware updates to the card.
So, I think the HDSP 9652 worked because it was close to the Digiface
and not specifically because RME wanted it to work under Linux.

Anyway, enough! I give! You win! ;-) I just wanna have a drink now!

- Mark