16 Jan
2011
16 Jan
'11
6:13 p.m.
Q wrote:
Ken Restivo wrote:
I think there is (and should be) room for both commercial and open
source projects to coexist for linux, that way there is always the
freedom to make the choice about what to use depending upon
requirements, ideology, financial constraints etc.
As a commercial developer, linuxDSP has had to go down that particular
(commercial) road because we have significant costs associated with
maintaining the infrastructure required to produce, distribute and
develop the software, however, we started making audio software for
linux, first and foremost as enthusiastic linux users - who just wanted
to make some great tools to do what we wanted to do, and to bring them
to a wider audience in a way that enabled us to continue their development.
That said, we realise that although our software and applications
themselves contain no GPL'd code, they are indirectly dependent on many
projects (e.g. DAW applications) which may be open source, and where
possible we support those projects and - revenue permitting - hope to be
able to contribute some financial support back to some of those projects
too.
I can't stand the whole idea of closed-source
VSTs and plugins and
synths.
Yeah, I'm one of THOSE guys.
Seriously, I'm using linux becuase of the freedom, the open source,
and the political aspect of it. That's why I run it. I wouldn't bother
with it otherwise.
If I wanted to use proprietary, closed-source software, why would I
even try to get it running on Linux at all?
Taking this a bit father: if convenience, "user experience", time,
availability, commercial support, etc were REALLY important, why
wouldn't I just get a MacBook Pro like everyone else has, and run that?
-ken
I'm very happy that there are closed-source VSTs and VSTi's, although
all the ones I use are non-native using Wine. Long may this be possible.
Yeah, I'm one of those OTHER guys ;-)
To be honest, I don't use any VSTs; I've only ever used LADSPA and LV2
effects.
Also, I'm using fewer and fewer VSTi's these days as I get more and more
hardware. But there are some things I'll never have the money or space
for and the only software alternative, or the best alternative (for me)
is some VSTi.
Only one of those VSTi's was bought before I started using Linux and I
don't use it any more as I have its successor. All the other plugin
instruments were bought knowing that they would work using Wine and
wine-asio. Yes, I've money invested and a bit of time to get them to
work initially, but it's not a throwback to mythical pre-conversion days.
In fact, I've never used Windows for music-making. I tried a little when
I was first starting out and didn't get far or get anything remotely
serious done, but very quickly moved to Linux, first DeMuDi and then
Ubuntu Studio. There are a number of things that attract me to Linux,
but most of them are probably pragmatic reasons rather than ideological
(although there are some of those).
If I wanted to use proprietary, closed-source
software, why would I
even try to get it running on Linux at all?
For me, it's all about running what I find to be the best (instrumental)
tools for the job, using the best (OS and software) tools for the job.
It's all about choice.
I hope Linux generally, and the Linux audio world specifically, never
becomes closed off, only open to those who want it to be totally free
and who want vigorously to maintain the purity of that essence :-)
Q