[PD] Slightly OT: Goal for NAMM 2017: Pledge to Support Open Source

[William Huston]

I hope you all consider this an appropriate post for this list.

I have been very upset at a certain manufacturer which I have decades of
experience owning their products.

I love their machines! But they are pissing me off by doing things like:


*1) Bundle software which only runs on Proprietary Operating Systems.*
This is an excuse to increase street price. Linux users who want just the
hardware are forced to pay for something they do not want and cannot use.


*2) Publishing only a partial MIDI implementation*
*3) Using a secret API* which only their *closed source Editor* can access,
and which only runs on *Windows or MacOS*. ($$$).

So *if I want a Korg product* (like their new Microkey Studio!!! I have the
perfect application for this!!!), *then I must also pay Microsoft or Apple,
in order to fully use the thing*. I must also must pay a premium for
software I  cannot use and may not want or need.


*I do not think this is fair or right!*

Here's an idea:

NAMM is going on right now. This is a time when all of the manufacturers
all get together.

I think the Open Source community has a lot of clout now.

My idea is to draft a *Pledge to Support Open Source Community*, which we
will try to get manufacturers support for by the next 2017 NAMM.

My list so far is this:

1) *Publish full MIDI standard. **No hidden APIs *which only closed-source
tools, which only run on  Windows or Mac can access.

2) *Unbundle the hardware from the optional software*. Don't force a linux
hardware owner to pay for software he cannot use.

3) Consider including *sample editors *or *performance programs *as
hackable *C programs,* *Perl *or *Python *scripts, and also *sample patches
*in popular *open-source music programs *such as *CSound, SuperCollider*,
or *Pure Data*.

Does anyone want to be a co-signer on this,
or have anything to add?


*I think it would be awesome to get the top 10-20 people*

*in Open Source Music world to endorse this first thing. *
People like
*Miller, Onyx Ashanti, Ico, Julius O. Smith, *

*Servando, Katja, Alexandre, Matt, IOhannes, Cheeto,*
*Richard Stallman*, ... c'mon people, help me out...

Wow, that would pack a whallop!
I think we could have a major impact on hardware manufacturers.

This is a way for me to take my complaint with Korg and make this a
campaign which could help users of other H/W vendors stuff as well.

Thoughts?
BH

-- 
--
May you, and all beings
be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)
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