Solving the biggest impediment to use Linux

[fsciarra62]

Hi,
I do it all the time.
I'm running my own software company mainly on open source, and I'm a strong advocate of this.
But for a software producer, it's easier to say that our platform is not supported than develop for the multitude of Linux incarnation and to afford the fight against unreasonable unstained white knights.
Face it: I feel we look quite a "radical chic" community to "the others".
I do this work since 1983, on many different application fields. And I have to say that in my experience music/video is one of the more difficult fields to address, mainly for this reason.
Things are not white or black, and the need to access "that" part of software exists. Otherwise projects like Wine, Carla, Proton wouldn't be there.
We should think "what" we can effectively do to enlarge the professional community of Linux Musicians, in order to have a heavier impact on the development market.
Then, when heavier, I feel we can try to operate a change.
Clearly, this is my humble opinion.
Best regards,
Fabrizio

[Basslint]

But for a software producer, it's easier to say that our platform is not supported than develop for the multitude of Linux incarnation and to afford the fight against unreasonable unstained white knights.

Your opinion is very welcome, I think we need to hear more voices from the professional community without any PR sugar.

I think you make a very good point about the culture of FLOSS, even if what you say is a bit harsh, you are right talking about "white knights". I know you are right because I used to be like that as well! If you search the internet for my real name, you'll find some very angry posts I did against the Freesound maintainers for locking user-provided samples behind a login. I was blinded by idealism and did not consider justice as a whole but only the end user perspective, all of this without ever helping the Freesound project. I publicly apologize to them, if they ever read this post, I am ashamed of those words and as a whole, of this kind of behavior. From that shameful behavior, I learned a lesson and these days I only complain about something if I somehow contribute to it myself (as a packager, mostly), or if those complaints can be constructive.

I also find it very bad that many people who are willing to buy proprietary software, games or devices are not willing to donate the same amount of money (or even a portion of it) to the FLOSS software they use. This I feel is the biggest impediment.

[fsciarra62]

Basslint,
Thank you very much for your frank words.
I'm sorry if I've been harsh. I'm not an English natural speaker, I'm Italian, and I cannot really "feel" the meaning of English words on my skin. I apologize for my ignorance, which is not an excuse to be rude, I know. I'm sorry about that. Please be patient.
I donate some money to FLOSS software, maybe not enough, and fighting for years a strong battle in my field.
The main problem we really have is that it is quite difficult, for a pure musician not very expert in computers, to use Linux for music.
The first big limitation is hardware support. We all know who to blame for this, but this doesn't change the game.
Then comes software. Even if in the last period many developers are porting, and I think we all should praise them and buy some commercial software.
To show that invest in Linux can pay the bill. Not everybody has the means to develop software to give away for free: the developers cost money. And quality software has to be maintained, too.
I don't mean that FLOSS is less valuable than a closed-source one. I'm saying that in certain areas, first of all we have to compete as a platform. And at the same level and with similar tools than "the others".
Until we reach a critical mass in the desktop scenario, we count zero.
I feel the path crosses that point first: critical mass.
And, last but not least, we have to admit that sometimes the open-source model doesn't pay the bill: I have quite an experience on that, seeing that one of my competitors (50 times bigger than us) has stolen the software that we have produced for a customer, as nonpublic open source, and they use it for their development without even comply to the distribution rules and giving back, not even mentioning that we are the original developers and using it for closed-source, causing a loss of money to us... And this not because they are better than us, not at all, not even close... they simply have "saints" we don't have... actually we have no one... and I want to continue like that: I don't want to spit on myself image at the mirror before getting to bed.
I beg your pardon for the rant, I mean you all that are reading.
And, as always, these are my humble opinions, not a truth, not either my only truth.
Fabrizio

[Basslint]

And, last but not least, we have to admit that sometimes the open-source model doesn't pay the bill: I have quite an experience on that, seeing that one of my competitors (50 times bigger than us) has stolen the software that we have produced for a customer, as nonpublic open source, and they use it for their development without even comply to the distribution rules and giving back, not even mentioning that we are the original developers and using it for closed-source, causing a loss of money to us... And this not because they are better than us, not at all, not even close... they simply have "saints" we don't have... actually we have no one... and I want to continue like that: I don't want to spit on myself image at the mirror before getting to bed.
I beg your pardon for the rant, I mean you all that are reading.
And, as always, these are my humble opinions, not a truth, not either my only truth.
Fabrizio

Non ti preoccupare Fabrizio, sono Italiano anche io e ho capito cosa volevi dire. Intendevo "harsh" in senso positivo, nel senso di "dura realtà", non nel senso di "offensivo"! Detto questo, let's go back to English for the sake of other readers

This you said is why I support copyleft licenses. I think they make the most sense, as they benefit both users and developers by preventing that someone else takes your work and profits from it without giving anything back. Sadly, the software development industry (which I quit for some years now) doesn't think it that way, it's actually common belief that the GNU GPL is a "viral" license which must be avoided at all costs.

[AlbertoZ]

Hi Fabrizio, thanks for sharing your points ..

When you say "hardware support" I thought that we had a huge improvement in the recent years by having the USB class compliant devices. Are the new MOTU audio interfaces non-class compliant?

My 2 cents on the linux audio, and audio community in general: we need promoters. We need outstandingly good "promoters":
talented/famous/key people that advocate Linux as good OS for music and audio.
In my experience there were few people's stories that captured my interest and allowed me to make the jump on Linux (since many years).
For example I'm referring to the story of Kim Cascone, (see this article on CDM https://cdm.link/2009/08/linux-music-wo ... m-cascone/, Miller Puckette (the pure data author), Dave Phillips (which I follow since early 2000 with his "reports from the front" on Linux), Paul Davies, Robin Gareus and many more. But .. Linux audio community needs much more to gain visibility.
Imagine for a moment if Daft Punk (or insert here your preferred band/authors) say they are making music on Linux: that would have a tremendous impact and would make more people to reconsider their OS.. A dream? Maybe..

Alberto