Kai Vehmanen wrote: > > This is great news! This is not just great news - it is _amazingly_ great news(!).
Within just a week, the two most major "roadblocks" keeping me from developing Linux music/audio apps have been "fixed". Now we have virtual commitment from the kernel developers for supporting the two things we need for developing - and just as important - *distributing* audio apps on the Linux platform. With the addition of kernel preemption code, and inclusion of the low latency patches by Red Hat (which I *assume* are going to be included in the next major release, not just Rawhide), it will be possible to distribute an audio application in "user friendly" format: a package that installs all the files, then enables "realtime" mode by writing to the file in the /proc directory. No expert sysadmin status needed by the end user (musician). And with the inclusion of the ALSA drivers in the kernel, good drivers for pro-quality sound cards will "just be there" - again, no complicated installation steps. We're getting really close to where I can envision some major music/audio software companies offering versions of existing products (e.g., Cubase, Cakewalk, Logic, Cool Edit Pro ...) for Linux. Or - new companies offering commercial products that were developed natively on Linux. This is exciting. Once again, my faith in Linus, the kernel developers, and the Open Source development model is reaffirmed! Life is good. - Jay Ts
