I would argue that audio production is the one area that Open Source truly excels in. I was very pleasantly surprised to find so many different tools available for audio production on Linux and the quality of the software.
Of particular interest is the JACK (JACK Audio Connection Kit) which allows multiple software products to communicate seamlessly with each other. You don't need to hope that your primary production tool supports your plugin or tool, only that it supports JACK. The rest is transparent and you'll find that because JACK has been around for so long that all the production tools you use will support it.
There is a very high quality open source multitrack recorder that is consequently used as a platform for a highly regarded commercial platform (Ardour/Harrison Mixbus). There are very capable MIDI sequencers with full feature sets and a veritable ocean of MIDI compatible synthesisers and effects generators. There are also a number of solid sequencers and loopers available as well.
Hardware wise, support is a mixed bag. On one hand, many sound interfaces do not have open drivers - but if you are selective then you can find very high quality interfaces with very good support. My experience with real-time kernels and PCI based sound cards (MAudio Delta 66's in this instance) allowed me to record at error free sub 3ms latencies with 24bit/96khz on much older hardware - something I couldn't even hope to achieve on other platforms.
The primary weakness in open source audio production is also a strength. The sheer diversity of production tools available makes developing an effective workflow a time consuming business and commercial offerings do have a much shallower learning curve. This isn't an issue if you are willing to invest a little time during the initial setup stages.
If you want to do open source audio production then there's absolutely nothing stopping you. Some might want to do this for ideological reasons (political or technical - they might want to extend the software), but others might not have any other option. Somebody from a poor community or in a third world nation might not have much trouble sourcing hardware capable of performing the job (donations etc.), but affording the software with the same level of features the open source solutions offer could be prohibitively expensive or it may be unavailable for other reasons (geo-blocking, donated commercial software is a very problematic area, etc.).
I finished high-school in the late 80's primarily using BBC Acorn's.
Our computer teacher was terrible. He told us all that learning programming was a waste of time because "computers will soon program themselves".
He failed everyone in the class bar one student, who just happened to be an attractive female (although admittedly, she was pretty smart).
I now make a good living as a programmer (OK, PHP script kiddy, but still).
Let's make no joke of it people. Napster raped the music industry. Sure, you may make claim that 'popularising the mainstream' promoted certain bands and made some names, but ultimately the performers were being right royally (pun intended) screwed.
NIN and Radiohead found a way to turn the emerging trends in their favour. When Napster was anally violating the musicians, this was not possible. Congratulation to Radiohead and NIN for proving this new business model, but also praise the intentions of Metallica who were taking on the selfish desires of the majority, and those who fed the junkies their shameless passions.
Piracy is wrong. Honest, hard working people deserve monetary compensation. Anyone arguing otherwise are little more than foul-crying thieves who don't deserve the spit cast upon them by well intentioned consumers.
Metallica were quite within their rights to discredit Napster. It was a business model that had proven to diminish the rights of the artist and one that has been discarded by the current darlings of the current online music distributing model (NIN and Radiohead). Metallica were right then and are just as right now when they review the potential for online distributing withing the context of the current market. The context now is vastly different from the context of yesteryear.
And so it is that I am saddened to see so many Slashdot participants judging Metallica by criteria that no longer applies. Yes, P2P piracy is still a reality, but many of us have chosen to ignore piracy and embrace the goodwill gestures of ground-breaking artists like Trent Reznor and Radiohead. It is only fitting that artists like Metallica and company follow this emerging market and embrace this superior distribution media.
I for one will be continuing to support those artists that embrace this new medium and purchase material from any new artist willing to brave these turbulent seas. While I question the production quality of albums such as In Rainbows and Ghosts I-IV, I have come to enjoy the quality of these productions at a more than welcome price point. Should future artists embrace this model, including Metallica (whose latest albums I have come to dislike in contrast to earlier works), then I will support them likewise.
At best, I will be exposed to groundbreaking material (of which Ghosts and In Rainbows undoubtedly is) at perfectly reasonable costs. This is more than acceptable in my opinion.
Raster Graphics (Photoshop alternatives): GIMP - although I only use this for web design which it does a good job of. The aforementioned CMYK plugin looks interesting if you're in a print environment.
Vector Graphics (Illustrator alternatives): I prefer Xara Xtreme (which has an open sourced version available) over Inkscape.
Desktop Publishing (Indesign alternatives): Scribus looks the business, can anyone tell me if Scribus can import RGB Tiff's (for example) and colour separate them for print?
Video Editing (Premiere alternatives): Cinelerra - A pain to install, crashes like a madman and exporting video is trial and error; but it beats all the other simple video editors hands down.
Web Design (Dreamweaver alternatives): There's a few out there, but none as good as Dreamweaver by far. I do most of my web design using PHP and hardcoding the websites with xhtml and CSS. I personally use Eclipse with a few choice plugins for this purpose.
Cinelerra and Scribus only run under Linux (although there may be MacOS versions?). This may not be suitable for your situation, but heck, how much does it take to install a dual boot system on a computer nowadays?
All these apps are pretty good for educational purposes. I wouldn't dare argue they're any good for production purposes, as the closed-source products are simply miles ahead in every way. If you're starting out and can't afford the full packages though, or are only interested in learning the concepts/creating a portfolio etc. then they do the job just fine and dandy:)
And just for the heck of it, a good 3D modelling/animation program is Blender.
In high risk ventures standards are extremely important. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that something that is standardised can be considered more trustworthy than other products (the primary concept behind ISO9001 certification).
But there is a more human aspect to it as well. The need for one to covers ones own ass. Apportioning blame is paramount. Give someone a task that has a certain degree of accountability attached to it and they will always choose a solution that negates their culpability. For instance, consider the saying 'No one ever got fired for buying Microsoft'. In the instance of a Microsoft based system failing due to inherit failures in Microsoft's products, the implementor can always attribute some portion of the blame onto Microsoft. They can legitimately explain how no other solution offers the same level of support, how no other solution has as much market penetration, how if Microsoft can't do it, no one else can.
While that is not so true today, standardisation is the modern day alternative. If its standardised, it is a viable solution. If it is not standardised, it inherits too much risk to be viable. What the standardisation of ODF does is present the format as a viable solution. It can no longer be discarded out of hand.
So in essence, it is a foot in the door. It may be a long way from becoming a competitor, but at least it can now be considered a player.
Of course, this certification has no relevance to those who are not overly concerned with standardisation.
You do realise the majority of pornography involves the outright exploitation of women don't you (with the rest being indirect exploitation)?
"I suspect" you just don't care. Oh well, have fun masturbating in a dark room... by yourself...
>Die, older versions of IE, die!
My sentiments exactly! If everyone with a net connection updates to IE7, there's the biggest, baddest apple suddenly out of the equation. I just cannot wait for those percentages to hit peak so I can justify ditching IE6 only hacks.
With that said, I imagine there are quite a few problems with my thoery, but heck, it's great living in your own little dream world:)
How does that help a user understand his system though? How does that help a user trust his system?
I don't want to be hand held all the way, and not have an inkling of what to do 'if things go wrong'. I want to be able to see things as plain as day. I want to stumble through and follow logical steps to deduce a solution.
It's not like I'm proposing you change the entire linux world and toss it on its head, keep the server distro's the way they are, but give the home user what he wants. Corporate desktops? That's the domain of the system admin. In my home though, there's no guru to come running to my assistance the moment I pick up the phone and dial an extension.
Make linux for the masses accessible, don't alienate the world by scaring the bejebus out of them!
I've been using computers since 1995 and I have been astounded by the advances linux has made in this time. Once a hobbyists dream and an alternative for the hardcore, linux has now become a viable solution in the server market. Built upon years of transparency and the input of whoever the hell wanted to; a robust, efficient and competitive operating system is now within the hands of the many. Linux is thriving in the server market and emerging as a potential saviour to the corporate desktop market, but it is still miles away from becoming a viable desktop operating system for the masses.
There needs to be a solution for the average joe, the technologically illiterate and the avid tinkerer. This is where linux loses ground to the mainstream operating systems. The quirks and technicalities that are pervasive in the linux operating system only serves to confuse and bewilder those who want to actually do something with their system. Sure a pretty desktop and application support is a good thing, and I'm astounded by how far linux has come, but it is when the user delves below this thin veneer that the alienation and obfuscation begin. A user wants to trust his system; not to know it inside and out, but in some obscure way understand his system. When presented with the nightmare that is root, all trust and all understanding is promptly thrown out of the window.
Simple efforts like the accomplishments of the GoboLinux team is what will bring Linux to the masses. Removing the complexities at the cost of security is a small price to pay when security is not of the utmost importance. Presenting an understandable operating system is of the utmost importance.
Bring us a logical file system, bring us file extensions; bring us, those who don't desire to become guru's yet who still want some understanding, the linux kernel. It is robust, efficient, secure, trusted, viable and an undeniable success in the server market. All it needs is developers who understand the requirements of the masses and linux will truly dominate.
Yes, I know it is a US based corporation that runs the domains so it won't make much of a difference to us. It's the idea that a paranoid and vengeful world power would have total control on the administration of domain names, and the ability to remove from the world wide web any site it finds 'controversial'. Goodbye to free speech (and don't think the American's wouldn't do it).
If the US wasn't so eager to enforce it's moral and political values on the world I wouldn't be so concerned. But alas, I look at the alternatives and find little peace of mind in them. Do we allow each country to administer their own domains? That would open a pandora's box (god I hate being cliched) that I wouldn't want to consider.
Oh well.. no stopping the juggernaut, only time will tell.
The important thing here is that the lady has asked for a PC and given a budget of $1000.
Trying to convince her to buy anything else would be confusing, and asking her to up the budget may not be possible.
Find the solution that fits the requirements, don't offer an unobtainable solution. A PC can be had for $1000 that will fill her purposes. True, a Mac would be ideal as she would be able to draw on the experience of her peers but considering the requirements this may not be an option. For all we know she could already be familiar with the PC interfaces (Windows).
I initially thought of an AMD system as I am under the impression that it has a stronger floating point processer, however Intel has SSE2 which I understand Adobe has optimised heavily for. AMD's lower cost would eventually lead me to AMD though.
One thing to consider is that the lady describes herself as an artist, not a graphic designer. This could heavily influence what software she requires. If she uses paint mediums or similar then she might prefer Illustrator and Painter over Photoshop. A graphics tablet as others mentioned would be a must.
Seriously guys.. You nay-sayers have got it all wrong.
Think how revolutionary a device is that can get you to the train station or bus stop on as much energy as it takes to start your car in the morning.
Think how easy it would be to take a quick jaunt to the local corner store that is just a wee bit too far to walk (but hey that Gas Guzzling SUV parked in the driveway is great for that eh?).
This Kaman guy is thinking of the planet here, and I think you guys should too. Anything that saves our grandkids asses has gotta be a great thing. That's why that sticker price is so high.
Save the planet cos Mars looks like a real shitty place to have a family bar-b-q.
Slashdot Mirror
I would argue that audio production is the one area that Open Source truly excels in. I was very pleasantly surprised to find so many different tools available for audio production on Linux and the quality of the software.
Of particular interest is the JACK (JACK Audio Connection Kit) which allows multiple software products to communicate seamlessly with each other. You don't need to hope that your primary production tool supports your plugin or tool, only that it supports JACK. The rest is transparent and you'll find that because JACK has been around for so long that all the production tools you use will support it.
There is a very high quality open source multitrack recorder that is consequently used as a platform for a highly regarded commercial platform (Ardour/Harrison Mixbus). There are very capable MIDI sequencers with full feature sets and a veritable ocean of MIDI compatible synthesisers and effects generators. There are also a number of solid sequencers and loopers available as well.
Hardware wise, support is a mixed bag. On one hand, many sound interfaces do not have open drivers - but if you are selective then you can find very high quality interfaces with very good support. My experience with real-time kernels and PCI based sound cards (MAudio Delta 66's in this instance) allowed me to record at error free sub 3ms latencies with 24bit/96khz on much older hardware - something I couldn't even hope to achieve on other platforms.
The primary weakness in open source audio production is also a strength. The sheer diversity of production tools available makes developing an effective workflow a time consuming business and commercial offerings do have a much shallower learning curve. This isn't an issue if you are willing to invest a little time during the initial setup stages.
If you want to do open source audio production then there's absolutely nothing stopping you. Some might want to do this for ideological reasons (political or technical - they might want to extend the software), but others might not have any other option. Somebody from a poor community or in a third world nation might not have much trouble sourcing hardware capable of performing the job (donations etc.), but affording the software with the same level of features the open source solutions offer could be prohibitively expensive or it may be unavailable for other reasons (geo-blocking, donated commercial software is a very problematic area, etc.).
I finished high-school in the late 80's primarily using BBC Acorn's. Our computer teacher was terrible. He told us all that learning programming was a waste of time because "computers will soon program themselves". He failed everyone in the class bar one student, who just happened to be an attractive female (although admittedly, she was pretty smart). I now make a good living as a programmer (OK, PHP script kiddy, but still).
Let's make no joke of it people. Napster raped the music industry. Sure, you may make claim that 'popularising the mainstream' promoted certain bands and made some names, but ultimately the performers were being right royally (pun intended) screwed.
NIN and Radiohead found a way to turn the emerging trends in their favour. When Napster was anally violating the musicians, this was not possible. Congratulation to Radiohead and NIN for proving this new business model, but also praise the intentions of Metallica who were taking on the selfish desires of the majority, and those who fed the junkies their shameless passions.
Piracy is wrong. Honest, hard working people deserve monetary compensation. Anyone arguing otherwise are little more than foul-crying thieves who don't deserve the spit cast upon them by well intentioned consumers.
Metallica were quite within their rights to discredit Napster. It was a business model that had proven to diminish the rights of the artist and one that has been discarded by the current darlings of the current online music distributing model (NIN and Radiohead). Metallica were right then and are just as right now when they review the potential for online distributing withing the context of the current market. The context now is vastly different from the context of yesteryear.
And so it is that I am saddened to see so many Slashdot participants judging Metallica by criteria that no longer applies. Yes, P2P piracy is still a reality, but many of us have chosen to ignore piracy and embrace the goodwill gestures of ground-breaking artists like Trent Reznor and Radiohead. It is only fitting that artists like Metallica and company follow this emerging market and embrace this superior distribution media.
I for one will be continuing to support those artists that embrace this new medium and purchase material from any new artist willing to brave these turbulent seas. While I question the production quality of albums such as In Rainbows and Ghosts I-IV, I have come to enjoy the quality of these productions at a more than welcome price point. Should future artists embrace this model, including Metallica (whose latest albums I have come to dislike in contrast to earlier works), then I will support them likewise.
At best, I will be exposed to groundbreaking material (of which Ghosts and In Rainbows undoubtedly is) at perfectly reasonable costs. This is more than acceptable in my opinion.
Raster Graphics (Photoshop alternatives): GIMP - although I only use this for web design which it does a good job of. The aforementioned CMYK plugin looks interesting if you're in a print environment.
:)
Vector Graphics (Illustrator alternatives): I prefer Xara Xtreme (which has an open sourced version available) over Inkscape.
Desktop Publishing (Indesign alternatives): Scribus looks the business, can anyone tell me if Scribus can import RGB Tiff's (for example) and colour separate them for print?
Video Editing (Premiere alternatives): Cinelerra - A pain to install, crashes like a madman and exporting video is trial and error; but it beats all the other simple video editors hands down.
Web Design (Dreamweaver alternatives): There's a few out there, but none as good as Dreamweaver by far. I do most of my web design using PHP and hardcoding the websites with xhtml and CSS. I personally use Eclipse with a few choice plugins for this purpose.
Cinelerra and Scribus only run under Linux (although there may be MacOS versions?). This may not be suitable for your situation, but heck, how much does it take to install a dual boot system on a computer nowadays?
All these apps are pretty good for educational purposes. I wouldn't dare argue they're any good for production purposes, as the closed-source products are simply miles ahead in every way. If you're starting out and can't afford the full packages though, or are only interested in learning the concepts/creating a portfolio etc. then they do the job just fine and dandy
And just for the heck of it, a good 3D modelling/animation program is Blender.
In high risk ventures standards are extremely important. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that something that is standardised can be considered more trustworthy than other products (the primary concept behind ISO9001 certification). But there is a more human aspect to it as well. The need for one to covers ones own ass. Apportioning blame is paramount. Give someone a task that has a certain degree of accountability attached to it and they will always choose a solution that negates their culpability. For instance, consider the saying 'No one ever got fired for buying Microsoft'. In the instance of a Microsoft based system failing due to inherit failures in Microsoft's products, the implementor can always attribute some portion of the blame onto Microsoft. They can legitimately explain how no other solution offers the same level of support, how no other solution has as much market penetration, how if Microsoft can't do it, no one else can. While that is not so true today, standardisation is the modern day alternative. If its standardised, it is a viable solution. If it is not standardised, it inherits too much risk to be viable. What the standardisation of ODF does is present the format as a viable solution. It can no longer be discarded out of hand. So in essence, it is a foot in the door. It may be a long way from becoming a competitor, but at least it can now be considered a player. Of course, this certification has no relevance to those who are not overly concerned with standardisation.
You do realise the majority of pornography involves the outright exploitation of women don't you (with the rest being indirect exploitation)? "I suspect" you just don't care. Oh well, have fun masturbating in a dark room... by yourself...
>Die, older versions of IE, die! My sentiments exactly! If everyone with a net connection updates to IE7, there's the biggest, baddest apple suddenly out of the equation. I just cannot wait for those percentages to hit peak so I can justify ditching IE6 only hacks. With that said, I imagine there are quite a few problems with my thoery, but heck, it's great living in your own little dream world :)
How does that help a user understand his system though? How does that help a user trust his system?
I don't want to be hand held all the way, and not have an inkling of what to do 'if things go wrong'. I want to be able to see things as plain as day. I want to stumble through and follow logical steps to deduce a solution.
It's not like I'm proposing you change the entire linux world and toss it on its head, keep the server distro's the way they are, but give the home user what he wants. Corporate desktops? That's the domain of the system admin. In my home though, there's no guru to come running to my assistance the moment I pick up the phone and dial an extension.
Make linux for the masses accessible, don't alienate the world by scaring the bejebus out of them!
I've been using computers since 1995 and I have been astounded by the advances linux has made in this time. Once a hobbyists dream and an alternative for the hardcore, linux has now become a viable solution in the server market. Built upon years of transparency and the input of whoever the hell wanted to; a robust, efficient and competitive operating system is now within the hands of the many. Linux is thriving in the server market and emerging as a potential saviour to the corporate desktop market, but it is still miles away from becoming a viable desktop operating system for the masses. There needs to be a solution for the average joe, the technologically illiterate and the avid tinkerer. This is where linux loses ground to the mainstream operating systems. The quirks and technicalities that are pervasive in the linux operating system only serves to confuse and bewilder those who want to actually do something with their system. Sure a pretty desktop and application support is a good thing, and I'm astounded by how far linux has come, but it is when the user delves below this thin veneer that the alienation and obfuscation begin. A user wants to trust his system; not to know it inside and out, but in some obscure way understand his system. When presented with the nightmare that is root, all trust and all understanding is promptly thrown out of the window. Simple efforts like the accomplishments of the GoboLinux team is what will bring Linux to the masses. Removing the complexities at the cost of security is a small price to pay when security is not of the utmost importance. Presenting an understandable operating system is of the utmost importance. Bring us a logical file system, bring us file extensions; bring us, those who don't desire to become guru's yet who still want some understanding, the linux kernel. It is robust, efficient, secure, trusted, viable and an undeniable success in the server market. All it needs is developers who understand the requirements of the masses and linux will truly dominate.
Yes, I know it is a US based corporation that runs the domains so it won't make much of a difference to us. It's the idea that a paranoid and vengeful world power would have total control on the administration of domain names, and the ability to remove from the world wide web any site it finds 'controversial'. Goodbye to free speech (and don't think the American's wouldn't do it). If the US wasn't so eager to enforce it's moral and political values on the world I wouldn't be so concerned. But alas, I look at the alternatives and find little peace of mind in them. Do we allow each country to administer their own domains? That would open a pandora's box (god I hate being cliched) that I wouldn't want to consider. Oh well.. no stopping the juggernaut, only time will tell.
The important thing here is that the lady has asked for a PC and given a budget of $1000.
Trying to convince her to buy anything else would be confusing, and asking her to up the budget may not be possible.
Find the solution that fits the requirements, don't offer an unobtainable solution. A PC can be had for $1000 that will fill her purposes. True, a Mac would be ideal as she would be able to draw on the experience of her peers but considering the requirements this may not be an option. For all we know she could already be familiar with the PC interfaces (Windows).
I initially thought of an AMD system as I am under the impression that it has a stronger floating point processer, however Intel has SSE2 which I understand Adobe has optimised heavily for. AMD's lower cost would eventually lead me to AMD though.
One thing to consider is that the lady describes herself as an artist, not a graphic designer. This could heavily influence what software she requires. If she uses paint mediums or similar then she might prefer Illustrator and Painter over Photoshop. A graphics tablet as others mentioned would be a must.
Just make sure you give her what she asks for.
Seriously guys.. You nay-sayers have got it all wrong.
Think how revolutionary a device is that can get you to the train station or bus stop on as much energy as it takes to start your car in the morning.
Think how easy it would be to take a quick jaunt to the local corner store that is just a wee bit too far to walk (but hey that Gas Guzzling SUV parked in the driveway is great for that eh?).
This Kaman guy is thinking of the planet here, and I think you guys should too. Anything that saves our grandkids asses has gotta be a great thing. That's why that sticker price is so high.
Save the planet cos Mars looks like a real shitty place to have a family bar-b-q.