My main issues with Linux Audio are mainly JACK related:
* JACK needs to become more plug-and-play. I think its a shame it still offers no way to auto-detect optimal settings on any given setup and instead the user has to find out what options to tweak then find the best settings through trial and error.
* JACK can still fail to start and just leave the user with some pretty cryptic errors as to why it failed. It is more verbose if the user has lsof installed but under Debuntu at least lsof is not a dep of JACK and so isn't guaranteed to be installed so the user has to know JACK or Linux well to know that that should be installed too to get more descriptive errors. Ideally, JACK, qjackctl and Cadence etc would say 'App/process xxx is blocking JACK from starting. Would you like to kill it? Yes/No"
* JACK can't hot swap audio devices and so if the user wants this feature they have to integrate PA with JACK which sadly still isn't straightforward under many popular distros and then the user has to learn about how ALSA, PA and JACK interact.
I'm hopeful my first two issues can and will be fixed eventually but I doubt JACK will ever have device hotswap capability which admittedly isn't something you're likely to do midway through an Ardour or whatever session but would be lovely if it worked!
Thats about it. I think our community is absolutely fantastic and one of the best things on the whole internet - everyone is so helpful and we have a huge amount of talent and knowledge on here.
In fact, I'm a bit concerned that if Bitwig leads to an explosion of commercial apps and plugins for Linux and LA busts out of its niche that LA* will suffer a kinda Ubuntu/Android effect where these lists will get swamped with newb questions and cause many of our valued members to unsubscribe.
On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Dave Phillips <dlphillips@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Greetings,
I've been reading a lot of negative (read: vitriolic) commentary about the world of Linux audio development and applications. I won't bother to say where, just "the usual places" will have to suffice. Of greater interest to me is the commentary itself - it seems to boil down to the following plaints and lamentations (in no particular order) :
Too many distros.
Too many audio-optimized distros.
Not enough native plugins, esp. instruments.
Inconsistent support for VST/VSTi plugins.
Too many unstable/unfinished applications.
Too many "standards" (esp. wrt plugins).
Poor external/internal session management.
Poor support for certain modes of composition (think Ableton Live).
Lack of support for contemporary hardware.
Confusion re: desktops, and GUI toolkits.
Too difficult to set up audio system.
JACK is a pain.
Too much conflict/fragmentation within the development community.
I'm not so interested in comments on the commentary, I have my own, but say what you will about the list. I figure that most denizens of these lists already have ready replies and responses to these and other criticisms, many of which have been voiced here previously. What I'm more interested in is what *you* think is missing most or just plain wrong about the situation. Please, try to speak your piece without flames or dissing other developers and/or their work. Frankly speaking, I've had enough of that crap, and I'm most thankful these days for such forum amenities as "mute user" and autodiscard, along with the standard filters found in mail clients.
<aside>
I'm reminded of John Cage's comments regarding the behavior of the NY Philharmonic when they destroyed his equipment during the premire of Atlas Eclipticalis, something to the effect that his concerns had ceased to be musical and had become social, i.e. that he had to figure a way to allow people to be free yet behave themselves with respect towards the common goal (e.g. Cage's music and property). I'm going to guess that he was still working on that up to his death.
</aside>
So, in your honest and bold opinion as user and/or developer, what do we lack most and what can we do without that we already have ? Please feel free to expand your remarks as you like. I'm planning an article on the topic and will likely use selected comments, subject to approval of course.
Best,
dp
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