[Ardour-Users] Ardour 2.8.5 released

[Paul Davis]

On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 11:15 AM, Ralf Mardorf
<ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:
> Paul's work is important for Linux, even if I'm not using Ardour, I'm using
> JACK2.

I didn't write JACK2. You can thank Stephane for that, not me.

> I'm not fine with shady inquiries for donations. There's nothing wrong with
> fair inquiries for donations.

Shady: there are about 5000 downloads a month by people who want
Ardour on OS X. These people generally have no idea how much they
should pay for software like this. And "software like this" ranges in
cost from about $50 to over $2000. I therefore consider offering
comparisons with existing, comparable software to be sensible.

> Coders of proprietary software need money for their lives too, they aren't
> robbers, they need clothes, something to eat and a flat. If they sell their
> product, then they don't expect others to build packages and to solve
> dependency hell.

I regularly defend the rights of proprietary software developers to do
what they do, and honestly believe that. I think that the open source
model leads to better software, in the long run, although it makes the
economics of development quite a bit harder.

> A product like Nuendo is a complete different product, because of quality
> and quantity. Even Reaper seems to be on a higher level than Ardour 2.8.5
> seems to be. Fraudulent representations shouldn't be used to ask for
> donations.

If you are calling my comparisons with other software fraudulent then
you can go to hell.

The first times I tried to run Logic, Cubase and Samplitude, they all
crashed several times in the first hour of use. Reaper doesn't do half
the stuff that Logic can do, it doesn't even  do some of the stuff
Ardour can do. These are all programs that do the same "general" kind
of thing. Some do particular aspects of it better than others. Some
have particular functionality that others don't have.

> deceptive advertising. Btw. I never tested energyXT 2.5, it's for Linux and
> costs 49,-€.

and is incapable of doing the primary tasks that Ardour is designed
for in a reliable and efficient way. its still cool software.

> Taking advantage of the gratuitousness of a donation in this importunity is
> manipulative and against FLOSS.

Anybody can get Ardour without paying a penny for it. If they want me
to continue working on it, then they'd better pay *something*. They
can pay $1, and that still counts (in fact, if everyone who downloaded
it paid a dollar for it I'd probably be hiring). Access to software:
FREE Continued development of software: NOT FREE. Users can decide.

You don't Ardour can stand the comparison to Reaper or Nuendo or Logic
or Samplitude - that's fine. You're welcome to say so. Others don't
agree with you.

> I completely agree that 45,-US$ are a fair price for Ardour, by a package

That isn't the price. There is no fixed price. Do you not recognize a
text entry box when you see it?

And I didn't even call you names. Aren't I nice?

--p