Re: [linux-audio-user] Pro Audio Software RANT!!!

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Pro Audio Software RANT!!!
From: Matt Yanchyshyn (myanchys_AT_is2.dal.ca)
Date: Tue Jan 29 2002 - 00:51:05 EET


Putting aside my open-source oriented principles for a moment, I have to
ask myself whether the answer to the rant lies in commercial software.

Sun gave the Linux community a revised StarOffice which they intend to
eventually sell. In the process, the open-source community is getting
OpenOffice out of it. Everyone wins. Money is pockets, code for the
masses. Other examples? Ximian's Evolution and super-Gnome is produced
by a commercial company interested in lining its pockets, albeit with
support instead of software sales, but with cash all the same.
TheKompany is another one. They sell super-Quanta, super-KDE,
super-WhatHaveYou -- commercially supported, high-end business-grade
open-source software. IBM is perhaps the supreme example of a
cooperative commercial hardware/software vendor that has a lot to gain
through the Linux platform. They want to sell commercially licensed
code, yes. But they also want to contribute heavily to the open-source
community and make sure that the platform and the applications that run
on it continue to grow.

So why haven't we seen commercial audio software developpers enter the
Linux world? Why not encourage them?

Why wouldn't a company unable to compete with big sound players on the
Win/Mac platform want to release a commercial-grade audio software
package for Linux? Give audiophiles a reason to switch over and, better
yet, use their new product as a Cubase or Soundforge or FruityLoops or
WhatHaveYou alternative.

The Linux community often forgets the big-time potential benefits of
commercial software for Linux distros, provided they are supplied by
"responsible" organizations who work with, rather than against, the
open-source community.

And so I ask all commercial competitors of mainstream Win/Mac audio
software applications to rise up, fight the tide and release for Linux.
There *is* a commercial market there and we (sound people) need it --
just play nice and we won't show you the door.

cheers,
Matt

ps- disclaimer: yes, I've read Richard Stallman's "Why Software Should
Be Free" and agree with it in theory. But things aren't quite that
simple, and I believe that there must be some form of
transition/cooperation before we can live in a truly open-source world.



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