On Sun, Feb 15, 2004 at 02:13:06PM +0000, Chris Cannam wrote: Nice writeup, pretty much echos my feelings of the event. It was very encoraging to see the number of people who were eagar to try linux audio, even in its current state. There is also a writeup on the sonic state website: http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=1373 with only one factual error I could spot :) - Steve

Just to add my observations... The event visitors were very curious about the software - as I expected, they'd mostly heard about Linux audio but hadn't seen it actually working; that's a big difference. My favourite quotes? 1. I use Linux at work but I didn't realise it had a graphical interface. 2. I use Debian at home but I didn't know there were any audio applications for it. 3. It looks really good but - (intake of breath) - how much does it cost? 4. I can't believe I'm really meeting Steve Harris! The response to our stand from other exhibitors was really positive, with the exception of Mark of the Unicorn. We had a lot of enquiries about using ALSA with MOTU hardware, and I took the opportunity of asking the MOTU representative directly. The answer was a straight no - they don't want to release any source code, they don't want third party drivers written and they don't want to support any platforms other than Mac and Windows. By contrast, M Audio were very supportive, and we also made good contacts with AMD, the BBC, Matrox and smaller companies. I'd really encourage Linux users and developers to hold similar stands at the equivalent events in other countries - a number of people asked us if we would be at Musikmesse in Frankfurt am Main (31st March - 3rd April): http://musik.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/de/ If anyone would like to co-ordinate an approach to the organisers to see if we can take part, please get in touch. Cheers Daniel