[Ardour-Users] Could this solve Ardour's financial headache?

[John Rigg]

On Fri, Jan 09, 2009 at 12:55:56PM +0700, Patrick Shirkey wrote:
> It's fairly simple to add a window which can show subscription/donation 
> info and Mantis bounties directly in the software. It could just be an 
> embedded html view using an existing browser dispalying the ardour 
> website. It's not much effort to add a news feed so people are kept upto 
> date without having to lift a finger. It's a little more effort to make 
> the window into a central point for community involvement. By ensuring 
> the interface is self updating and relevant it will give users incentive 
> to participate. Most users don't want to and can't be bothered keeping 
> track of the website to find out what is happening. If it was easily 
> accessible to them and the info was relevant then more people would make 
> some time to contribute.

This would put off a lot of professional users trying it for the first
time. Many security conscious studios and recording engineers would be
very unhappy about connecting a DAW containing clients' work to the
internet full time. I personally never connect my production DAWs to
the internet.

In addition, any use of screen space for non-audio related display would
suggest to a pro user that the software isn't intended for serious work.

Those of us running dedicated DAWs (ie. with no software apart from the
minimum needed for audio work) don't necessarily have web browsers 
installed anyway, and this isn't going to work at all for anyone who does 
location recording in places without a usable internet connection.

John