On ons, 2004-05-05 at 10:05, Andrea Glorioso wrote:
>>>> "Tom" == Tom Kerswill <tomkerswill(a)f2s.com> writes:
As a musician and user of the software, I think
that it is more
important to get maximum useability and practicallity out of the
software. At the moment most musicians are paying for Microsoft
Windows software, because there is not an alternative that
supports their hardware. That's the most pressing problem. If
there are free alternatives in development, then use them, but
if there is no alternative, then it is most important to support
a wide range of equipment and reach as many potential users as
possible.
Tom, please notice that this is a matter of distribution. The fact
that A/DeMuDi doesn't come with the firmware doesn't mean the user
can't simply download the firmware itself (not that I particularly
like this solution).
Scenario "Meeting with the Producer"
------------------------------------
The producer shows up at his favourite café with a laptop, and together
we borrow a USB keyboard from the nearby music-store. Installing Linux
on his harddisk is out of the question, but the live-CD boots nicely
into the familiar X Window System.
- Wow, fantastic! I had no idea this was possible.
- Now please show me whatever it was you had on your mind.
- Just a minute, there is no sound yet ...
There is no sound and there will never be, because his soundcard (listed
as "Linux compatible") needs initialisation by firmware. The USB
keyboard, as it happens also a common brand, needs firmware
initialisation too ...
- That's really an "impressive" little system you've got yourself there!
- If you wan't to, you can borrow my Windows install CD?
- Ehrmm ... yes, I know, but really, ehrmm ... How to explain ...
- It worked at home!
- Promise!!
- We could try to fix it by connecting to the Internet, yes?
- ???
End of session with free software.
Of course this can't be done on the Live CD until you install it on
the hard disk (if you feel like doing it) but then again I very much
doubt you can do serious low-latency work directly from CD - anybody
correct me if I'm wrong.
Once your setup is up and running, you won't need the CD very much
anymore. Softsynths, sequencers and samplers lives on the heap.
Data for configuration and saving your work, would probably live on a
diskette or a USB drive.
/jens
bye,
--
Andrea Glorioso andrea.glorioso(a)agnula.org
AGNULA Technical Manager
http://www.agnula.org/
M: +39 333 820 5723 F: +39 (0)51 930 31 133
"Libre Audio, Libre Video, Libre Software: AGNULA"