[LAU] The pain of Firewire audio hardware

[Lorenzo Sutton]

[Long, partly rant-ish, pouring OT email, so if you want feel free to skip]

This morning I got the most polite, kind email from a person who knows 
me as "the linux guy" and saw me use linux with audio a lot, candidly 
asking "I need your help: were can I get drivers for my RME Fireface 
400" for Ubunto?
Now, I went writing the usual leitmotiv of explaining the situation with 
Firewire hardware on linux, the fact that most audio hardware makers 
suck at linux, the great FFADO effort, etc. etc. What will he think? I 
don't know.

But, while writing I couldn't keep back a bitter frustration feeling 
thinking of having to explain this over and over. I'm not trying to find 
'someone' to blame or anything, simply it feels frustrating, 
evangelising linux, showing it how great it is for audio, but then... 
there you go a simple polite question and this bitter feeling you can't 
really help him much... Arrrghh. And I wouldn't feel like saying thow it 
away and get a fully supported FFADO one, right?

So. I wonder if we should do a audio-hardware-manufacturers push effort. 
I once wrote a (probably solitary, naive) email to RME who (rudely) 
replied that "ALSA does the drivers for linux, ask them" (WTF??).

Maybe we could pick the 5 most popular yet lieux-unfriendly 
manufacturers and do a collective petition, lobbying, PR action. I'm no 
low-level dirver programming expert, but my feeling is that in some 
cases doing a binary version of their drivers wouldn't be so much 
effort. I know, I know... I said the "B" word (binary), but that's yet 
another debate. Having "something" for linux IMHO would be good starters.

Sorry for the long pouring out, but this is one topic which I'm really 
sensitive to especially when relating to the "Macs are for serious 
audio" universe. (Arrrrggghh)

Lorenzo.

-- 
** NOTE **: This gmail address is my new email.
I will still be reading my libero.it email, but please use this new one 
for any further email.
Thanks you for understanding.
** NOTA **: Questo indirizzo gmail è la mia nuova email.
Continuerò a leggere la posta libero.it ancora per un po' ma vi prego di 
usare questa nuova da ora in poi.
Grazie per la comprensione.