[linux-audio-user] OT: FUD or not? what is your opinion?

Robin Gareus robin at gareus.org
Thu Feb 22 08:14:15 EST 2007


carmen wrote:
> On Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:57:58AM +0100, Robin Gareus wrote:
>> I hope(d) that linux-audio and linux-desktop popularity are quite 
>> uncorrelated. Although an open source software can; an open-source 
>> community does not seem to be able to support [non-caring|paying]+ 
>> End-Users in a satisfactory way - "uuh - do I need to type? I just
>> want to click?"
> 
> by end-user, i guess you mean OSuX/XP users 

just forget about OS or DE or distro names for a while - John still
wonders if we can :-)

> who dont want to learn anything 

that exactly hits the spot! -

Imagine s.o who is only makes a living by open-source development
without wanting to supporting it's Ideology! (some out there sells/buys
hippie-wigs in wal-mart.) OTOH everyone not wishing to learn sth. new;
is still free to waive his/her GPL user-rights and join the open-source
outlaws or the plugin-mafia :-)


> and just click an icon? thats the point of Ubuntu, innit?

>> " - ok I kid. Who would agree that someone who wants to record
>> audio should learn how to use a keyboard first? - OTOH it's a feat I
>> would expect from every audio-engineer, even if only to label analog
>> cables :-)

along these lines:

There's nothing wrong with old tape recorders that have few big
mechanical buttons (my favorites). They always work, one can even open
them - advanced users can even tweak the flange or motor-speed...
In that saying: Ubuntu brings the mechanical audio age to the digital
open-source desktop.  obviously Pro-Audio has more knobs than the guys
on the Ubuntu-CD Cover are going to handle in near future (sorry -
couldn't resist - lol. )

 :back with a new coffee:

ok it's not just fun making up desktop utopia allutions; what I gather
from this discussion is that end-user support is (again?) becoming
increasingly important, especially for open-source!
One of the worst case scenarios is that rapid development and increasing
disk-space will undo the shared open library concept, as the latter
usually has long turnaround times and also misses proper dependency
tracking/logistics..

The GPL in general releases tension of the programmer. - and it's not
unheared of it transforming angry-users into productive coders - so the
actual bottom line question is: What can linux-audio do to support
gnu/Linux?

Ico seems to be right there, that it boils down to the user-interface
and community look&feel.

There's already lots of great backend software, and also good work in
packaging those for various distos. - maybe the LA-Consortium should
think about a task-force to recommend or delegate missing integration
features: both for library development (LASH rocks!) and/or
desktop-integration: eg. mapping some limits.conf magic to a
desktop-prefs check-button is easy; the trick is to compose an
informative mouse-over hint! but it's more subtle than that, now is it?
 "make the world as simple as possible, but not any simpler!" (A.E.=mc2 )

It might be a topic that Linux-Audio Developers (busy as they are
already) should pay more attention to. - what do you guys think?
s/pay/be paid to pay/ ?! lol

As for a community [web] interface there is ongoing work and more
discussion to come on this list pre+post LAC2007.

> imo the biggest problem affecting linux audio on the desktop is video
> cards

i don't follow you there. personally I'm always astonished how well
various live CDs detect video cards!

but if you mean that tweaking high performance video hardware on linux
compares to obscure voodoo magic, I quite agree ;-) -  or were you
hinting upcoming DRM (not Direct-Rendering but Digital-Rights) hardware
issues?

what can *we* do about it ?




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