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

Jay Vaughan wrote: 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. 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). See above. Like on the ALSA Wiki, the MusE wiki, the linuxmusician site, in the articles I've written, or... ? 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.