On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 1:05 PM, Renato
<rennabh@gmail.com> wrote:
I think we're leaving the "how linux audio could be more user friendly"
topic in favor of the "how linux could be more user friendly" - which
is not bad, just saying.
They are directly related to each other. If Linux is not friendly, Linux Audio will not be friendly.
I allready stated more or less this, but I'd like to say it again, in
other words. If I wanted a user friendly OS, I wouldn't be using linux,
but probably OSX. There's a monetary cost for that, but OTOH linux and
more in general open source software involves a larger "time" cost,
time spent reading documentation etc. There's a tradeoff there.
I think many people here, like me, prefer to invest time in open source
software rather than money AND time (though less) in closed source
software.
Here is the thing, Time IS Money. One way or another, time invested in systems and software means time not spent making money, or even money spent learning these things. This ties directly into my next response which I will cover in a moment...
However to go off on a tangent, I am going to pick on your response, which I see as more of a knee-jerk response than anything. Are you really saying what you typed, they you would RATHER have to manually set up everything about your system, rather than have it set up correctly and be able to infinetely tweak, but only if you want to? Because a system is user friendly, doesn't necessarily mean that it is not powerful, and that is something I think many people miss. OS X is a user friendly system yes, and they did it by limiting the ability to tweak it. Does that necessarily HAVE to happen? I don't think nearly to the extent that Mac did it, they did it specifically to limit and keep people from being able to screw up the system. But that doesn't mean it needs to happen to have a user friendly system.
However the response of, "I don't want a user friendly system" just doesn't hold water for me. If that is the case, I certainly hope you enjoy building your system from LFS every time. In your case, and in most cases, I suspect it isn't "I don't want a user friendly system" as much as "I don't want a system that limits my choice in favor of user friendliness", which is something very different.
The way I feel is that we really shouln't invest too much time and
energy with users who won't learn how to do such an easy thing as using
a terminal (just google "linux using terminal").
What does the community gain in having such people use linux?
The question raised by this thread back when it started was how to compete with the now defunct Pro Tools LE in a professional environment better. These are exactly the people that will be most affected by the loss of PTLE and the ones specifically targetted by the originators of the thread, these people that don't want to spend already precious time and money dealing with what could be a much simpler system.
What does the community gain by this? Acceptance, if that. In truth it is a question of how much that is worth to you. To some people it is worth more, as it means admittance that Linux Audio has reached a certain point, that it has at least that much quality to it.
But some people want to evangelize that there IS choice out there, and that by itself is enough of a gain for many people.