Re: [9fans] linux stats in last year from linuxcon

[Patrick Kelly <kameo76890@gmail.com>]

On Sep 22, 2009, at 4:47 PM, Jack Norton wrote:

> Richard Uhtenwoldt wrote:
>> J.R. Mauro writes:
>>
>>> Another thing they won't consider is having separate versions for
>>> high-end servers and PCs. I don't understand why Torvalds thinks
>>> Linux
>>> has to be all things to all people.
>>>
>>
>> the Linux running on a high-end server is probably compiled from
>> the same (evolving over time) source tree as the Linux running on
>> a desktop.
>>
>> but cannot the same be said of Windows now that most desktops run
>> Windows XP or a later version of Windows?  cannot the same be
>> said of OS X?
>>
>> Richard Uhtenwoldt
>> http://sonic.net/~sielskr
>>
>>
> The big topic for me is the realtime patch (the one mentioned at
> rt.wiki.kernel.org).  I dabble in computer based audio, and this
> patch is mandatory for low latency audio.  There is a big debate as
> to why this isn't pushed into the main kernel source and/or forked
> in the name of such things.  All I will say is that on OSX I can use
> jack daemon and get low latency audio right out of the box and on
> windows I can use low latency drivers such as ASIO and the newer
> WaveRT.   It's even more tragic as there are tons of great linux
> audio tools, but they are a hard sale because you need to apply the
> rt-patch (which for a musician is like performing open heart surgery).
> In the end I don't care what the linux devs do, but they need to
> come up with a game plan and either fork (server, desktop linux) or
> include it all and try and make everyone happy (the latter will end
> in chaos me thinks).

Funny when you consider the only music oriented systems still alive
are Gentoo, and 64Studio. Everything else either has dropped out, or
hasn't been updated in forever. It even looks like this might happen
for 64Studio.
I don't know if it's just for my couple sound cards (emu10k1, and a
couple RME's) but it seems audio quality has gotten worse since I
first dabbled in Linux audio.

> What I just described is the number one topic that brings up the
> 'fork linux' debate (at least it's the one I always pay attention to).
> Speaking of realtime, I am trying my hardest to port some of our
> custom control applications that we use around my engineering lab to
> inferno (anyone doing something similar?  inferno list is not
> exactly a popular place apparently).  Right now I spit out a python
> script on the fly for everything (quick turnaround) and it's getting
> old (plus I want to be able to control anything in the lab from any
> machine in the lab -- i.e. a perfect place for some inferno installs)
>
> -jack
>