> sorry, but those labels hardly ever release music that's worth > listening... Ok, I wasn't going to say anything, but now I can't help it :-) Thank you for saying that. Please understand that I am a hobbyist not a career musician, so making money at music is not as big a deal for me as it may be for some. At some point I made a decision to not pursue a career in the music industry b/c the industry so often seems to take away much of the art (just like every other industry). So I pursued another career that hopefully supports my music hobby. Unfortunately, I often find myself distracted at my day job by music-related diversions (as I am now). Anyway, my point is, so much of what I do musically is an attempt to not conform totally to the mass-produced norm. For example, a couple of years ago I needed a Strat-style guitar. The last thing I wanted to do was buy a Strat because *everybody* has a Strat. So I bought a customized G&L, which you might argue is the same thing, but really, it's not. It's just different enough to make a personal statement. For me Linux is the same way. My DAW has the oppurtunity to be *my DAW*, not somebody (or everybody) else's Protools or Cakewalk. And that applies both sonically and visually. As a producer (and I use the term very loosely) that personalization factor is very important to me. It's not so much about non-conformity as it is about creativity. There's a point where the commercial offerings stop creating because they have something that's functional and it costs so much with such high risk to be creative that they are not willing to go there. The open source people don't have so much on the line and are willing to exercise their creativity a lot more. If it flops, we just throw it away and work on something else. So you get all the cool synth packages that have come out and really unique things like Jack So it might not ever be palatable to the masses because it's too innovative. It's the same reason why Creed will always sell more tickets than Dream Theater, but I will always listen to DT more than I will Creed. Creativity vs. following trends. Have I totally missed the point? OTOH, the tools, like the music needs to be commercially viable, at least for those who choose to make their living off of it. And I think it could be and someday will be. It would be a shame for all this cool innovation to only be accessible to programmers -- especially since many of the developers are going out of their way to make it accessible to non-programmers. I'll stop rambling now. Greg __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com
