Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] [OT] marketing hype
From: Marek Peteraj (marpet_AT_naex.sk)
Date: Thu Jun 10 2004 - 03:54:37 EEST
On Thu, 2004-06-10 at 02:27, Marek Peteraj wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-06-10 at 00:07, Jan Depner wrote:
> > On Wed, 2004-06-09 at 17:26, Marek Peteraj wrote:
> >
> > > But you guys *are* following proprietary software in general. Ardour is
> > > a DAW just like cubase is, while SSM resembles reaktor in its
> > > philosophy. LADSPAs are plugins like VSTs are, etc etc etc. There's
> > > nothing which is perfectly original.
> > >
> > > I've never seen such inapt community btw, which is totally ignorant in
> > > organizing itself. See the gnome community which started to exist the
> > > same year. They have more conferences per year, one of them being
> > > huge(guadec) with sponsors, larger companies involved, and *most* of
> > > *all* they're a centralised community.
> > >
> > > What we have is tons of links and no information. Although there are
> > > some very good standards which could be successful even in another
> > > domain(e.g. jack), nobody cares to promote them.
> > >
> > > Lots of LADders even think that this mailing list isn't really
> > > important. Nobody cares that it actually represents a pretty central
> > > meeting point for developers interested in linux audio, and a perfect
> > > knowledgebase.
> > >
> > > We also have an organisation, which isn't really an organisation since
> > > it's not a legal entity, and about 2/3rds of all don't seem to even
> > > participate. And that organisation seems to have different goals than
> > > promoting and protecting linux audio in *general*, *whether* pro or not,
> > > i.e. the linux audio community.
> > >
> > > Centralising information and provoding easy access is a pretty good way
> > > to promote linux audio so that it reaches more developers and users, you
> > > don't need marketing hype for that. No matter if it concerns linux audio
> > > in general or ladspa plugins.
> > >
> > > The gnome community already provides that, the kde community aswell.
> > > Heck, there's even a linuxprinting.org community. Do i need to say more?
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Personally speaking, as a free software developer I don't care if my
> > > > programs are deemed as sucessful, they work for me, and handful of other
> > > > people - this makes me happy :)
> > >
> > > I'd like to see what other developers of the most popular linux audio
> > > projects think. Because if they share your opinion, i'd rather save some
> > > bucks and buy myself a mac.
> > > Linux audio is perfectly unusable for me. Currently.
> > >
> > > Marek
> > >
> >
> > Marek,
> >
> > I hate to break this to you but I've got a life, a job, a wife, two
> > kids, one in college, 3 bands, and I travel for my job about 30% of the
> > year. I'm not interested in making money or getting customers from
> > JAMin. I do this because I enjoy it. I do it because I use it myself.
> > I do it because other people can use it and appreciate the work that
> > goes into it. I started working on JAMin originally because I thought
> > that I owed people like Paul Davis, Steve Harris, Jack O'Quin, Fernando,
> > Erik, Jaroslav, Jesse, Taybin, Takashi, ad infinitum something back for
> > the work that they have poured into the tools that I use on a daily
> > basis.
>
> Fair point.
>
> > If you want to organize something go ahead and organize it, but
> > please don't tell me that I have to conform to some consumer driven
> > vision of the great commercial future of Linux Audio.
>
> Sorry to criticize still, but you're participating in linuxaudio.org
> whose current aim is to do exaclty that. ;)
> Which i'm not saying is bad, the opposite. I think that a lot of
> valuable work has been done so far(if only technology-wise) and i think
> it's a pity to leave it like that.
Moreover, i think that opensource has become more than just hacking
around with friends over the years.
I think that there's a real chance to make this a better world. Which
can sound as cliche, but at least it would legalize the software in the
whole world in a few years time. Not to mention free as in beer for
those who can't afford to pay for sw at all.
So i think it pays off to be more open to new ideas, especially
usability related and organisational, these days. You might not reach
your peak in terms of usability with your app still. And people get used
to good things easy so it's easy to recognize. ;)
So using that kind of empathy in designing interfaces is what should
drive oss aplications forward these days. This doesn't apply to desktop
apps only. The desktop people already have human interface guidelines
worked out. They have usability mailing lists, and usability engineers
that do UI reviews.
And here's the chance to decide whether you want to provide your tool to
as many people as possible. The more people will use your tool the
happier you'll be since you make more people happier. And since you'll
continue hacking on JAMin(or any other project) anyway....
Marek
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Thu Jun 10 2004 - 01:41:31 EEST