Subject: RE: [linux-audio-dev] stats please.
From: Ivica Bukvic (ico_AT_fuse.net)
Date: Sun Oct 14 2001 - 05:38:22 EEST
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-linux-audio-dev_AT_music.columbia.edu
[mailto:owner-linux-audio-dev_AT_music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of DAVID G
MATTHEWS
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 4:38 PM
To: linux-audio-dev_AT_music.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] stats please.
>The facts are that stats alone are not going to convince people to go
>Linux.
<snip...>
>-dgm
Point well made. Still, I do have at least one example where this kind of
comprehensive latency-and-performance-info made a world of difference. In
the audio studio where I work, there are two groups of users, one
mac-oriented (being the majority), and the other linux-oriented (me being
the major proponent, and at the same time minority -- go figure :-). It was
not until very recently that I finally convinced my supervisor to purchase
the first Linux machine (although with a very tight spending budget, about a
year ago we ended spending less than $1500 for a P3 933 Mhz Dell Dimension
with a crummy PCI64 card in it). Since, we ended up spending multifold for
the newest macs which had almost no useful software (due to fact they are
running OS X), thus acting as nothing more than
"overpriced-space-eating-popsicles." So what was the main reason for this?
Propaganda. The continuous myth that mac's are faster than current intel/amd
pc's, that they have better latency, that they look better (??? this surely
being a determining factor for a music studio... sorry, being sarcastic
again), that they have a nicer looking desktop (??? AGAIN!!! Arrrrghhh...).
All of these "reasonings" are simply blatant lies (excluding the "looks"
argument, which is so ridiculous to me that I will simply ignore it). Still,
for those of you out there who would beg me to dffer, here's just some of
the websites for the purpose of enlightenment:
http://www.cpuscorecard.com/all_cpus.htm
http://no6.com/apple/
http://mambo.peabody.jhu.edu/~karlmac/publications/latency-icmc2001.pdf
Yet, we still are having many mac's in our studio, and only one linux box.
Why? Actually, it's rather simple. Apple community shells its followers on
continuous basis with never-ending articles containing this kind of
benchmarking data, so that when it comes to decision as to what kind of
equipment studio is supposed to buy, the only thing I have to show are bunch
of incomplete benchmarks and an occasional well-composed message on the
message board (how much credibility this would offer to a regular
non-informed person, I'll let you figure this one out on your own), while
their macnews sites burst with bent facts, but sound so much more credible,
since they've come from the "well established" sources. Just recently, Apple
has announced how the new version of coreaudio in the OS X.1 will set new
standards in the audio industry by implementing 32-bit sound and
"expected-up-to" 1ms MIDI latency. Hello!!! Where have you been past two
years? What kind of industry standard are you talking about?... Same goes
for their 1 gigaflop myth with which they managed to call their computers
"supercomputers" (despite the fact that some of the early P3's already broke
this ground without any big fuss, since the 1 gigaflop standard for
supercomputers was used in the early nineties, not the 21st century). This
is the kind of stuff that convinces me that we DO need as much
audio-praising info as possible posted on the front of most credible
webpages closely associated with linux audio, such as ALSA's and LAD.
So, I guess, instead of boring you all to death with my ramblings and rants
:-), what I am trying to say is that this proposed move to post latency info
is not necessarily going to convert everyone overnight, but it just may help
in some cases, and even that could mean a lot for the linux and linux-audio
community and/or individuals such as myself. After all, sitting quietly and
churning our superior code won't help us increase linux-audio community
without making ignorant people aware of just how good linux really is.
P.S. Please do not flame me for my not-so-positive views towards Apple
computers. I've made up my mind [based on my personal experiences], and I am
most convinced that you have too. So exchanging flaming words will just end
up wasting a lot of bandwidth for all of us :-).
Ico Bukvic, composer
http://meowing.ccm.uc.edu/~ico/
ico_AT_fuse.net
============================
"To be is to do" - Socrates
"To do is to be" - Sartre
"Do be do be do" - Sinatra
"Just do it" - NIKE
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