[LAU] bitwig announcement

[Jörn Nettingsmeier]

On 01/15/2012 02:29 PM, hermann wrote:

> Not so long ago, for most people linux was == open source, that gone
> lost more and more. You didn't need to be a geek to prefer the use of
> open source tools, that could also lead by sozial or maybe political
> skills.
> Today, it becomes harder and harder to found a place were you could talk
> with people over open source tools. More and more Close Source swap into
> the Linux world. For me, for example that makes linux more to a 2.
> windows.
> The advance of open source is that knowledge gone be a community good.
> Okay, for a Musician witch just wone use the best tools to make Music,
> that didn't have any impact, but also musicians could be driven by there
> political or social state, and for those the place witch could be called
> "home" is slipped away.

this argument works both ways: for professional users, all that counts 
is the availability of the tools required for a particular job. if i can 
get a closed-source tool (rather than none at all), that enables me to 
_stick_ with linux and not have to run a brown-paper-bag headless 
windows box in my basement that needlessly heats up my wine storage and 
irritates my router.

i'm pretty sure there is nothing to fear from choice, ever.

it's interesting to observe the (minor) frictions that arise when people 
who are coming from a proprietary operating system (who have certain 
user experience expectations and some degree of ignorance of how the 
open source community works) suddenly adopt open-source tools. i 
remember the tricks paul used to pretty much drive ardour-osx users into 
IRC at gunpoint - without these tricks, mac users tended to double-click 
on an installer, run into a problem, walk away complaining and were 
never seen again... this is probably also the reason why there's isn't a 
windows version of ardour (yet) - you got to backport the software, but 
you also got to forward-port user attitude, which can be a lot less 
tractable.

in the bitwig case, the problem is much simpler: a proprietary tool 
enters an open-source ecosystem. it removes one more hurdle for people 
with a certain workflow to adopt (or stay with) linux.
those who don't like it don't use it. the only friction point arises 
when those who don't like it tell others why they shouldn't be using it.