Request for native Linux Support

[danboid]

Urs:

Thanks for the reply! You'd only need to support one windowing system - Xorg. X will eventually get replaced by Wayland but Wayland has a compat. layer so it can run X apps so I wouldn't worry about that.

Surely there is no need for an installer for your plugins when all users have to do is copy the plugin into ~/.vst (in the case of VSTs, of course).

I'd second abiques suggestion to check out SDL for your interface - its FLOSS, cross-platform and has received much love recently from Valve who have made many improvements to it to cope with the demands of modern AAA gaming titles.

[danboid]

I'd say think of the number of people who have recently thought

"Great! I can run Bitwig / Tracktion under Linux now, but where are the plugins?"

One part of the catch-22 is done, you just need to address the other part. You can beat all the other big name plugins devs to Linux support if you're bothered. I'm confident it'll pay off in the long term.

Its my personal belief that Windows and OSX will die a slow death unless they become open source - Android is already the worlds most popular OS and Linux has won in every other computing area (embedded, mobile, servers, supercomputers etc) that there is. Now with Valve pushing desktop or GNU/Linux (as opposed to Android Linux), I know where the smart money lies...

[Urs]

Well, I've worked with SDL in the 90ies of the last century. I'm pretty sure I'd find my way around

I'm sure we'll discuss this at one point but it's impossible to promise anything yet.

[chk071]

Its my personal belief that Windows and OSX will die a slow death unless they become open source

Actually that's what Linux guys claim since, don't know, 20 years? Last time i checked, the diffusion rate of home computers accessing the internet running Linux was under 2%. I think one big part of the problem is the Linux communities megalomani.a. And of course their own open source dogma which makes it so hard for the industry to dare to put a foot in. Sorry for the harsh words, but i think by constantly claiming stuff like that, you folks are scoring an own goal pretty much.

[danboid]

Urs:

I'm glad to hear you're considering it - I'd buy zebra for Linux on the day of release

chk071:

So you're a big fan of Windows 8 are you? IE your browser of choice? Binging it up? You think MS shall rule forever do you? They're not going away overnight but I'm sure people thought the same about DEC in the 80' / 90's. Its rare I hear a good word said about MS these days, from anyone. Apple? Don't get me started on that fashion company!

Linux is the worlds biggest software project, bar none. MS and Apple can't hope to compete in the long run unless they fully open their operating systems too. Linux is infinitely tweakable, extendable and fixable with the most developers working on it. Windows and OSX.. aren't. OSX runs on Macs - Linux runs on anything and everything. Windows is steadily falling out of favour whilst Linux only becomes more prevalent. The desktop is the last area where Linux hasn't took over yet but have you tried KDE or Cinnamon recently?

I'll readily admit Windows and OSX have many more quality desktop apps (and games, in the case of Windows) but Linux beats them hands down as an OS, for me at least.

[Urs]

Hehehe, nothing beats platform wars. I pretty much hate all of them.

[ghettosynth]

Its my personal belief that Windows and OSX will die a slow death unless they become open source

Actually that's what Linux guys claim since, don't know, 20 years? Last time i checked, the diffusion rate of home computers accessing the internet running Linux was under 2%. I think one big part of the problem is the Linux communities megalomani.a. And of course their own open source dogma which makes it so hard for the industry to dare to put a foot in. Sorry for the harsh words, but i think by constantly claiming stuff like that, you folks are scoring an own goal pretty much.

I hear you on the megalomania, but, I have to say that the open source dominance in Linux is what makes it great for work. I don't want to have give up any of that just so it can be mainstream so that people can run their audio apps. Hell, I even ditched Ubuntu over the whole default windowing system which sucks ass on big monitors.

[danboid]

Urs:

Yep, none of the OS's are perfect but for me Linux sucks the least because it does what I tell it too and quickly. If it doesn't, you can make it so. Windows / OSX - you get what you're given. They have nowhere near the number of OS customization options offered by Linux and FLOSS.

Ghetto:

The latest versions of Unity and Cinnamon both have improved support for HiDPI displays, if that was your prob. I'm not sure about KDE and I don't have a super hi-res display to test these things anyhoo.

[pdxindy]

Yep, none of the OS's are perfect but for me Linux sucks the least because it does what I tell it too and quickly. If it doesn't, you can make it so. Windows / OSX - you get what you're given. They have nowhere near the number of OS customization options offered by Linux and FLOSS.

That is geek talk... lots of people don't care much about OS customization options... I just want it to work reliably and fast and be mostly invisible.

I tried switching to Linux for a while... couldn't find a page layout program I liked, GIMP was passable but not nearly as fast and efficient as Photoshop, was never able to get video editing working reliably... and I ended up spending too much time thinking about Linux instead of just doing things. I don't care about computers so I want to spend as little time as possible focused on the device and just get the creative things done with them that I enjoy.

You may be right about Linux in the long run, but right now, for someone like me, it sucks (sorry)

[danboid]

If you give a PC to someone like me who is experienced in both Windows and Linux admin, I can get a fully configured Linux machine set up in a fraction of the time it'd take to do the same under Windows. Thats because Linux is easier and faster to install, upgrade and maintain than Windows. Linux updates everything in one cycle and you may have to reboot once (if the kernel gets updated) versus the several required just installing the Windows base OS. To be honest I don't do much tweaking of my system ie custom compiles of apps / kernels etc but its nice to know I can when needed.

As for page layout, Libreoffice writer is good enough for my needs but if you need something more advanced did you try Scribus, Pagestream, Inkscape or Xara Xtreme? GIMP can't compare to PS for high-end features but is good enough for most 2D graphics tasks.

I think KDEnlive is a superb video editor and I've never had any issues with it. If that doesn't serve your needs then Lightworks should but I expect that'll be a bit too powerful for many users needs. I've not used it myself as I'm perfectly happy with KDEnlive.

[Erkenfresh]

My studio setup is running just fine on Windows. I see no reason to switch to Linux any time soon.

That being said, first to market with a good synth on Linux probably is a good money maker. If not now, then soon. You could be the Sylenth of the Linux world (except better because it's Zebra and not Sylenth)!

[abique]

Well, in the end, it doesn't matter too much. Because some people already believe in Linux and are porting they're stuff. Others are building new synths which are Linux ready.
Audio synthesis common knowledge is growing and free software is a nice place for modular synthesizers.

[pdxindy]

If you give a PC to someone like me who is experienced in both Windows and Linux admin

Yes, the key there is experienced in Linux admin... I have no interest in being experienced in Linux admin... and Linux forces you to be so. It is not the fault of Linux... it is just how it is. Once you start trying to do stuff, you find that software X has some problem and the fix is something else, but that needs to be compiled and there you are down the rabbit hole.

With OSX, I rarely ever think about it at all... I just do what I want and it is out of the way... Linux aint that!

[chk071]

While i have to admit that Linux got a holy lot more user friendly in the last years, there's still some stuff which requires more knowledge than the usual home computer user is willing to feed himself. Another point is the slow development in most cases. I mean, there's bugs in Ubuntu and Mint that i have experienced now for 2 or 3 versions, and they just don't fix it, because the manpower has to be spent on stuff which is more common. Actually i'm happy that Ubuntu has a company in its back, with at least some manpower. When i look at purely community driven stuff like Debian, which is developed mainly by students, and IT people in their free time, it's even worse. in the end, sorry to be negative, there's a lot of building sites in the Linux world.

[ghettosynth]

Urs:

The latest versions of Unity and Cinnamon both have improved support for HiDPI displays, if that was your prob. I'm not sure about KDE and I don't have a super hi-res display to test these things anyhoo.

The problem was that Unity sucked on large monitors and Ubuntu was insisting on it. I'm on Mint/Ubuntu now, not changing again until there is good reason to do so.

Yeah, not going back to anything less than 4K anytime soon for my work machine.