Future of Windows in pro audio

[Psychlist1972]

Perhaps not everything on Linux has to be free. But it's pretty hard to sell copy-protected audio software on an open source, free software platform with a near zero audio marketplace. You can be sure that u-he spent more money in the form of man-hours porting to Linux than it will ever make from selling on Linux.

The same could be said about arpeggiators...

What scares MS and Apple is "Open Source". I almost bet they've got a team of people figuring out how they can use the term for the market while never even coming close to delivering it.

The ASIO driver project I lead is open source, permissively licensed. Before this, no one created open source ASIO + UAC2 drivers, but I wanted everyone to have access to the code.
https://aka.ms/asio

The Windows MIDI Services project I lead, which has been incorporated into Windows 11 as of a week ago, is open source, permissively licensed, developed in the open with customer and partner input. That's an entire SDK, Windows Service, kernel driver, and more. We continue to work on it in the open, and then pulling the resulting code into Windows.
https://aka.ms/midirepo

WSL is open source, PowerToys is open source, WPF, WinUI, WinAppSDK, etc.

There's actually quite a bit of proper OSS at Microsoft. Other teams, especially in the developer division and .NET, do a lot more of it than we do.

Modern Microsoft is not scared of Open Source, but there are places where we use it, and places where we do not. You may be still thinking of the Steve Ballmer days, which was a while ago, now.

Pete
Microsoft

[BBFG#]

I actually don't trust MS to tell me the truth about anything anymore.

[Psychlist1972]

I actually don't trust MS to tell me the truth about anything anymore.

That's the amazing thing about open source, right? It's out there for you to see for yourself.

It may also surprise you to learn that I, as a Microsoft employee and MIDI Association Exec Board Chair helped bring the Linux ALSA project into the MIDI Association during spec development. And that was also a big part of the reason I wanted the MIDI repo to be OSS -- so Takashi and folks in ALSA could see how we implemented MIDI 2.0 without there needing to be any NDAs or other encumbrances, or concerns about IP.

They beat us to a shipping version , but we had to rewrite a couple of old APIs to maintain backwards compatibility.

Operating systems are tools, not religions.

Pete
Microsoft

[BBFG#]

That's nice.
But I can't believe it.

[Psychlist1972]

Corporations aren't all full of evil people.
Foundations aren't all full of good people.
And Linux users don't all look like 1990's Richard Stallman

[audiojunkie]

.....Valve has done so much for growing the Linux userbase. I have a lot of respect for them.

How do you reckon SteamOS would go doubling up as a audio production OS? Especially with Reaper.

It is a serious question, been thinking about SteamOS for a while and if it has matured at all as an OS.

As I understand it, SteamOS is just a Linux distro that has been customized for running Steam. It would probably work, if you know what you are doing in Linux.

[Grizzellda]

Perhaps not everything on Linux has to be free. But it's pretty hard to sell copy-protected audio software on an open source, free software platform with a near zero audio marketplace. You can be sure that u-he spent more money in the form of man-hours porting to Linux than it will ever make from selling on Linux.

The same could be said about arpeggiators...

What scares MS and Apple is "Open Source". I almost bet they've got a team of people figuring out how they can use the term for the market while never even coming close to delivering it.

The ASIO driver project I lead is open source, permissively licensed. Before this, no one created open source ASIO + UAC2 drivers, but I wanted everyone to have access to the code.
https://aka.ms/asio

The Windows MIDI Services project I lead, which has been incorporated into Windows 11 as of a week ago, is open source, permissively licensed, developed in the open with customer and partner input. That's an entire SDK, Windows Service, kernel driver, and more. We continue to work on it in the open, and then pulling the resulting code into Windows.
https://aka.ms/midirepo

WSL is open source, PowerToys is open source, WPF, WinUI, WinAppSDK, etc.

There's actually quite a bit of proper OSS at Microsoft. Other teams, especially in the developer division and .NET, do a lot more of it than we do.

Modern Microsoft is not scared of Open Source, but there are places where we use it, and places where we do not. You may be still thinking of the Steve Ballmer days, which was a while ago, now.

Pete
Microsoft

This stuff actually sounds pretty cool, Pete, I am going to be looking into it further.

Can you say anything about W11 and Midi Services project that you mentioned?

[BBFG#]

Corporations aren't all full of evil people.
Foundations aren't all full of good people.
And Linux users don't all look like 1990's Richard Stallman

And the people taking their orders from evil corporations are exculpable?

They promised they were stopping "support", which gave me hope that I could finally strip the garbage they kept adding once and for all.
But noooo. Now every time I boot up it hits up a screen to pay or be reminded later. How about "never show again"?
And all this after I've turned off every Windows update from the very start.
And that's just scratching the surface.
Seriously, I've got reason to not believe anything from them or from anyone that speaks for them.

This has been the growing sentiment that is driving the current growth of Linux.

[Psychlist1972]

This stuff actually sounds pretty cool, Pete, I am going to be looking into it further.

Can you say anything about W11 and Midi Services project that you mentioned?

Thanks.

Nut shell: New MIDI stack currently rolling out to Windows 11 24h2 and 25h2 retail.
- Multi-client so every port can be used by any number of applications
- Automatic MIDI 2.0 <> MIDI 1.0 translation and scaling so all apps can speak to all devices, using MIDI 1.0 or the new MIDI 2.0 APIs
- New, faster combined MIDI 2.0 and MIDI 1.0 USB driver
- Built-in loopback endpoint support
- Built in app-to-app MIDI support (fully MIDI 2.0-capable virtual device apps)
- Preview Network MIDI 2.0 support
- Future: BLE MIDI 1.0 and BLE MIDI 2.0 support, virtual patchbay support, more
- All works on Arm64 and x64 PCs.
- Downloadable MIDI Settings app, MIDI Console, PowerShell cmdlets for MIDI scripting, and more
- Discord server: https://aka.ms/mididiscord

The parts that aren't open source:
- Existing in-box WinRT MIDI 1.0 API re-plumbed to talk to the new MIDI Service and devices
- Existing in-box WinMM MIDI 1.0 API re-plumbed in the same way.

Multi-client MIDI w/translation demo


Written by the three of us (Video from the NAMM Show last month)


Pete
Microsoft

[jamcat]

That’s all cool. Really. But it’s also about 30 years late.

[Grizzellda]

Again, thanks Pete, there is alot here.

Is there any thing you wanna say regarding Windows updates...Can they be turned off?

I would like to keep a production computer offline. Any advice?

[Tiles]

Depends on your Windows version.

You can mostly turn off Windows Updates on Pro/Enterprise via Group Policy or the Windows Update service. Home editions can only delay them.

To keep a production PC offline, disconnect from internet or Wi-Fi, disable update checks in software, and use the Microsoft Update Catalog to manually apply patches via USB. However, nearly every program these days tries to phone home or requires online activation. Even accessing the Update Catalog requires a connection, so staying fully offline takes some effort but it is doable.

[legendCNCD]

Yep, I have my audioPC setup Win11Pro with GPO's. It has not updated itself or checked the updates for 3 years now. No problem, runs like a champ. When something needs to be updated, I'll push the button myself thank you come again *bell chime*.

[Psychlist1972]

That’s all cool. Really. But it’s also about 30 years late.

MIDI 2.0 just came out.

The rest: sure, it's taken a while. But it's not "too late" because it's of huge benefit to everyone immediately.

Pete
Microsoft

[Psychlist1972]

Again, thanks Pete, there is alot here.

Is there any thing you wanna say regarding Windows updates...Can they be turned off?

I would like to keep a production computer offline. Any advice?

Article I wrote 4 years ago on how to control Windows Update on DAW PCs. It's still largely accurate, although it could use some screen shot updates.
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows- ... 11-daw-pc/

Keeping your computer offline is only an option if your plugins, DAWs, etc. don't need to phone home to verify licenses.

Pete
Microsoft