but I am thrilled to have such a great piece of software for my operating system of choice (Ubuntu Studio at the moment) as Ardour. It’s a little upsetting to me to see OS X played up so much on the Ardour web site. On the main page it says “available for OS X, Linux”. It says it again on the download page. Also on the download page you’ll notice that two OSX downloads are listed before the source code and there are no .rpm’s or .deb’s anywhere to be seen on this page. (This is probably a bad point because I can’t think of a single reason why there would need to be .rpm’s or .deb’s available for download.) But still - the OSX downloads are listed before the source…in an open source project.
I’m thrilled that OSX users can use the software, and I wouldn’t take that away from them if even if I had the chance (like I said, I’m not trying to be petty) but I’m sure if Photoshop was ported (legally) to Linux, it wouldn’t appear first on their “Supported Platforms” list. Remaining a Linux-focused project doesn’t have to be seen as being uncivil to the OSX users. Ardour is doing a great job at bringing curious eyes across the Linux webpages, but if someone were to arrive at the ardour home page they would think this was an OSX project that was ported to Linux.
Let’s show our pride a little more.
…Also, what’s up with all the OSX screen shots in the manual?..I mean Come on!
I hate to write something so negative without showing my appreciation…so I want to say that this is IMO the best piece of software since the Linux Kernel itself, and I want the devs to know that I’ll always be more than happy to donate to such a great project. As far as I’m concerned they deserve to be filthy rich from their efforts. So donate everyone! these guys have to eat too!
Somehow, you seem to have completely the wrong idea about Ardour. It is not for Linux and it is not focused on Linux. I have no idea what makes you think otherwise. However, for various reasons I (and some other people too) believe that Linux is a superior platform for some of the workflows that Ardour will typically be used in. For others kinds of work, it has dramatic drawbacks compared OS X and it would be foolish to recommend it. Linux is also a much more pleasant platform to develop and debug on, but this need not have any consequences for our users. Ardour targets any OS that has a reasonably sane API (i.e. POSIX-like) available. That's the only platform targettting we do.
There are no packages for Linux distributions because the Linux software landscape and culture makes it absurdly difficult for us to provide such things or worse, to even just link to places where they can be found. Instructions are provided for Linux users at the top of the dowload page in the 2nd sentence: "Linux users who want ready-to-run packages should read this information" which points to this page: http://ardour.org/download_linux
If you'd like to help out with other screenshots in the manual, its a collaborative effort and anyone can join in.
Might have something to do with the majority of contributions to the manual have been from primarily OS X users, sad to say?
Just a thought:)
The end goal is to have the manual able to be customized for Linux or OS X and possibly the screenshots be platform neutral, but considering how few contributions have been made to the manual and the lack of time I have had recently, it is a slow process. As Paul mentioned, if you want to join in, you certainly can, feel free to contact me.
I appreciate your feedback on my comment and again I want to thank you and all involved for the work you do. I completely agree with you on (and immediately regret leaving) my “distro packages” argument in my comment. The Linux software distribution model is in a poor state, and frankly non-existent accept at the distro level. Should be some standardization there in my oppinion, but that’s another post.
I’ve gotten this idea, I suppose, because I started using Ardour on Linux and didn’t imagine it’s benefits outside of my box. Maybe that is indeed foolish of me (almost definitely). I understand that there are drawbacks to each platform, but my ultimate desire is that these drawback could be reworked on the Linux platform to help remove people from the idea that Mac is king in the multimedia realm. With the open nature of Linux (especially hardware-wise), I think it has great potential to one day best the Mac at it’s own, self-proclaimed game.
Projects like Ardour do a great deal to bring attention to the Linux platform (I know it’s not geared towards a particular platform, but let’s face it Linux is probably the most common Ardour OS of choice). And while bringing attention to Linux probably isn’t your goal (or at least not your project’s goal), I think positive reinforcement for an OS that is, by some, understood to be buggy or “for geeks” is long overdue. With Ardour being as capable as it is, I could imagine no better way to polish it’s tarnished image than by proudly advertising your project’s aim to be a Linux Native.
As I said similarly before, Microsoft makes MS Office which has been ported to Mac. But you won’t go to their website to see Mac listed first on their support list. Being an opensource project, it wouldn’t be bad form to play up the opensource movement a bit.
I was of course talking about the complete manual, not the new one. I think the screen shots in the new one are OS neutral. And, now that you mention it, I would actually love to help with the manual. I love the look of the screenshots - they’re very professional. Who has been working on it that I could contact?
Thanks again for the reply, and for setting me straight on a few things. lol
Drop me an email at my gmail username: seablaede and I will set you up on the manual. In as far as images especially if you are submitting screenshots remind me in your email so I can point you to the guidelines on what we are hopefully progressing towards(There are a few, but many are lacking).
I don’t have access (On purpose) to be able to email you through the website here, sorry.