Re: [linux-audio-user] FOLKS, PAY ATTENTION TO NOTEEDIT, the score editor!

From: Hans Fugal <hans@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Mon Dec 19 2005 - 23:22:01 EET

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 at 15:27 +0200, I. I. Ooisen wrote:
>  
> REFERENCE:
> http://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/noteedit/noteedit.html
>
> (i just found this!) the developers of noteedit say on their site they
> want to end noteedit development because nobody cares about noteedit.
> this makes me angry.

What makes you angry? That they want to end development or that they
claim nobody cares about noteedit?

> on their official page, they are blaming us for this situation. (maybe
> they are right, maybe they are wrong.)

Every one of us, including the noteedit authors, has power only over his
or her own actions. If they feel compelled to stop development, that is
their choice. In the end, that's all it comes down to.

> NOTEEDIT (which is GPL), THE BEST USER-FRIENDLY SCORE EDITOR FOR
> GNU/LINUX (cause that's what it is!), doesn't deserve to be ignored.

Nor does it _deserve_ anything else, whether good or evil. It's just a
bunch of bits. Perhaps you'd like to imply that the authors of noteedit
don't deserve to be ignored. This is a much more poignant point, and
it's hard for us developers to accept sometimes, but using our software
is just as voluntary as our creating it.

> what is wrong with us? i wonder why most of us ignore it...

When it comes to software and business, the question is never what is
wrong with the user/customer, but what is wrong with the
software/product/service.
 
> is it because noteedit is a kde app and most of us are gnome supporters?
> is it because we all afford to buy finale and don't need a GPL score
> editor?
>
> i really don't understand why we keep on ignoring it. it's a... mystery
> to me why almost nobody even mentions it... (maybe they didn't choose a
> very memorable name? are you confusing it with an application class
> name?) honestly, i would be very sad if the noteedit project was
> abandoned!

Or maybe it's not really ignored at all. I'd like to see proof that it
is being ignored, whatever that means.

> i am not related to the noteedit project in any way, as i am a newbye to
> anything gnu/linux. however, noteedit is one of the reasons for me to
> feel comfortable in gnu/linux.
>
> maybe we could do something about it? i don't know... advertizing the
> project... promoting it... whatever... or just take a look at it (if
> you haven't already) and think for yourself. it may not be *perfect*,
> but it's THE BEST we have...

The great part about open source software is that if a project is
abandoned, it can be picked up by somebody else or at least downloaded
in its latest state. It looks like there's a berlios project to carry on
the torch, so that may be happening here. If you want to help, there are
many ways to do so even if you're not a coder (e.g. documentation or web
design or promotion). If you think the best hope is to court the
previous developers with lavish praise or whatever it would take to make
them feel that spending time on noteedit is worth their time, then by
all means go ahead.

I come into this saga in the middle - all I'm going off of is your post
and the website you linked to. I can only give a general observation: in
the OSS world, software is written and software is used. Not all
software written gets used, but everything that gets used can be
maintained by virtue of the open source.

So I just wanted to reassure you on two points: there is no conspiracy
to ignore noteedit, and because noteedit is open source it will continue
to be available and perhaps even continue to improve.

Let's each do something proactive for our favorite project(s) and
refrain from blaming others for our (in)actions.

-- 
Hans Fugal ; http://hans.fugal.net
 
There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the 
right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
    -- Johann Sebastian Bach

Received on Tue Dec 20 00:15:12 2005

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