If I were running a commercial software firm and software made by random people in their spare time compared pretty well with my pricey software, I would be a little concerned.
On Dec 6, 2007 1:08 PM, Kyle Klipowicz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > And this is precisely the unfortunate reason why the open source world > will (almost) always lag behind the commercial world of consumer > software. When developers make their bread and butter based upon if > the consumer buys, they're more likely to pay attention to and > implement the wishes of their users. Take Ableton. They actively parse > their online forums for feature requests...and then implement them > when a critical mass is reached. > > There are some exceptions in the FOSS world. Ubuntu is quite user > friendly (with the support of a large endowment from a very wealthy > organization with a charter specifically devoted to bringing Linux to > the non-programmer set of the world). Firefox is giving IE a run for > it's money (although the primary codebase from FF comes from the old > commercial, closed source Netscape). > > I know that Hans' statement re everyone becoming a developer is true > in theory, but in reality people who want to rapidly prototype a > project with something like Pd or Max are using these applications > precisely because they do not want to code in C. > > After reading Marius' post re GEM vs. Jitter, it is painfully apparent > that the capitalist/consumer model of software engineering has a few > aspects to it that are difficult for the FOSS community to compete > with. Namely monetary and human resources and the external pressure to > meet the requests of the user in order to ensure a continuous flow of > financial support. When you code for a hobby or yourself, it is > difficult or even impossible to be bothered with these things, and > rightly so. Without compensation, there's often little scope (or time) > outside one's own projects for developers in the FOSS world. This is > unfortunate, but as I see it, true. > > Question is, what can be done to change this or compete? Or should Pd > just become the thing that hobbyist programmers use, while Max takes > the stage as the "serious" tool for rapidly prototyping interactive > A/V artworks? I hope that this is not the case... > > No flames meant in this mail, just compassionate thought-mulling. > > ~Kyle > > >
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