13 Nov
2002
13 Nov
'02
12:04 p.m.
Also, with much of the audio/desktop stuff still under
development, I
experienced much less of the linux/server stability...
Some months ago, the alsa driver would freeze my system whenever I tried
to use the sequencer interface. More recently, the dri-driver for my
radeon keeps doing the same. Then again my KDE-desktop is rendered
unusable from time to time by some buggy apps not to mention all the
beta audio-applications which aren't stable yet.
So right now, I think stability is not really an argument pro linux
audio.
the argument for stability is not a general claim about all drivers
and all software. its an argument about how a properly configured
linux system will behave. yes, there are lots of flaky applications
around (i wrote some of them :), and several problems with various
device drivers. however, such things exist in the world of proprietary
OS's as well. what we have that they don't (except OS X) is a baseline
stability that is, well, by most standards its completely
amazing. when i explain to people that the machine in my office stays
up for months at a time, even when i am doing active software
development on it (not device drivers :), they look completely
amazed. they just can't imagine that a computer could do such a
thing. now, if go and install the latest ALSA from CVS, i could blow
things out of the water. this is where skills, expertise and the rest
come in. its not simple to set up *any* computer with *any* OS for use
in a professional audio context. you have to know about minor interactions
between apparently unrelated bits of hardware, odd bits of software
and sysconfig arcana - its basically an area that most users shouldn't
tackle. carillon seems to be doing reasonably well selling its
pre-built systems in the UK precisely because of this reason, and i
see no reason why the linux end of things will be any different.
--p