Hi,

I'll be forthright and tell you that I work for Lionstracs and have a vested interest. Thank you for taking time to be the devil's advocate. Left to their own resources, most aspiring businesses are destined to mediocrity and failure. Lionstracs is no exception. Facing the devil's wrath here and now with your help is essential to avoiding the unemployment line. Your concerns are more important to Lionstracs than any ignorant beliefs or feelings that may blindly steer us into bankruptcy.

Rick said, "The problem is not related to linux, but to the approach that comes out from liontracs people's messages. One of them said that: "Our goal is to make all the software that powers the Mediastation open source so that users can customize it, improve it fix eventual bugs etc." and this assertion clearly leads to my point about users not being programmers."

Users aren't programmers but for manufacturers to insulate engineers from user feedback and participation in product development is assinine. It defies common sense. The Linux development model has taught us that the user's insights and feelings are critical to product development. The reason Linux is successful is because the license for usage defines and protects our right to share intellectual ideas. This freedom enables us to avoid the "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" trap that relegates users to a position of being second rate citizens.

Each of us at Lionstracs is one of or a combination of hardware/software engineer, technical writer, business manager, musician/song writer, audio engineer and producer. I own a recording studio. My studio business partners and I have made our livings in that business since 1983. I am confidant in speaking for my Lionstracs and studio partners when I say, all of us share an intolerance for the proprietary business model which ignores us.

Producing user friendly solutions begins and ends with respecting the user.

But don't think we would bet the farm on a philosophy if the result of its methods didn't produce superior product. IBM is investing millions into Linux. Yamaha music, IBM, Sony and Panasonic have all invested into Linux R&D Monta Vista (www.mvista.com/news/2002/yamaha.html). Yamaha music has 57 bases in 20 different countries. Chase Manahattan Banks run their critical Wall Street operations on Linux servers. Examples of this trend are too numerous to list. The penetration of Linux into the server, business and desktop markets is an old story. The chapter Lionstracs gets to help write concerns Linux in the media production realm.

Rick said, "Add to this my deep doubts about making all the software open source... I think that company management has something to say about this..."

Those of us you're debating with are Lionstracs company management. So, you're getting it straight from the horses mouth.

Rick said, "Then, a couple of your replies have no sense at all. You say that every product has its lifetime. So what? I think that you ignore (or undervaluate) how hard can be the process of customizing an operating system, and how much harder can be the process of continuing someone's else work. So, liontracs mission (producing a software-only musical instruments) is very hard, because they have to fight against big, worldwide music companies (Yamaha, Korg and Roland, just to name three of them), and against other companies with the same idea (eKo), and against people scared from their approach, and against people who thinks that 5000 (+ taxes) are too much .... Then, another problem: just suppose that the board comes to reality... you can have the best product in the whole world, but you won't sell a single piece without good advertising..."

There are many reasons for dreams to become nightmares. So what! If you're an artistic painter, I'd suggest you give it up because the Mona Lisa has already been produced. Sorry, I can't resist a little indignance. At any rate, I'll try to give a reasonable response to your legitimate concern.

Consider Apple purchasing Emagic and announcing that Logic will no longer be available for Windows. That certainly has imposed a feeling of helplessness upon a large group of people. To be treated as a pawn causes me to become resentful. Lets consider an application that will be included in the Mediastation, Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK, jackit.sourceforge.net). JACK is a low latency audio server. It automatically detects hardware ports and user defined application level soft ports. It also automatically detects all jack_transport capable clients. Any client in the graph can initiate transport commands. How's that for user friendly?

JACK is the result of public discussions between software engineers and end users.

You and 2000+ other subscribers to the Linux Audio Developer mailing list receive the source code for JACK and a legally binding license that protects everyone's right to modify and distribute JACK, and your modifications within the rules defined by the license. No organization has the opportunity to treat JACK developers and users as pawns in their games.

Incidentally, there has been an offer from one major manufacturer that wants to license the Mediastation. Domenico has politely declined. We have a major distributer from the U.S. that covers all of North and South America. We're in negotiations for a distribution contract. They are bringing us to the January NAMM show. These are indications for a bright future but we understand that the challenge has just begun.

Rick said, "And, finally, the customer-care problem. So, while I wish liontracs all the best, I should carefully evaluate pros and cons. BTW, when you say that with liontracs you can "...have a sampler of the quality of giga or halion, or software synthesizers of the quality of reaktor, fm7 or DAWs at the level of protools all running together in the same machine", you forget to mention how much money we need to buy all those programs."

The software in its current state and all future upgrades are free of monetary costs. There are one or two in-house applications for which we're hesitant to release the source code. We're afraid it could compromise our opportunity to establish marketshare. After we feel that the Mediastation is establsihed, it'll be a sound business move to release that code. Otherwise, to the best of my knowledge, all the applications are GPL and publicly available. Incidentally, Lionstracs is making financial contributions to engineers that have written open source licensed applications that we need. If any of the apps you're developing on Mandrake are music related, let us know. We might be interested in funding your work.

I suspect any firmware for Lionstracs in-house DSP cards would not be released because we're not in the business of selling components. Consequently it serves no purpose to release hardware drivers. However, our future business plan includes the possibility to encourage and support third party hardware and software manufacturer products. Any support that's required will be available.

Rick said, "Finally, I hate when someone start publishing its product saying that it is good because it uses Linux, and the other is bad because of Microsoft. I know where I come from: I experienced many PC operating systems, both as a user and as a programmer: DOS, Concurrent Dos, MOS, GEM, Novell, OS/2, PCos, BOSS, Linux, Windows... and APPLE, from the IIE model to first Mac, passing thru Lisa ..."

Speaking for myself and not Lionstracs, I couldn't care less about Microsoft, Apple, Linux or any other OS. My concern is the license that defines our freedom! The reasons Yamaha Music is switching to Linux are all a result of the GPL license and the product development model that it makes possible. Anyone that doesn't understand intellectual freedom in the engineering paradigm can't appreciate how development and business models can be changed to produce technically superior products, sound business investments, and a healthy user community.

I have nothing to say about Bill Gates and consequently can never be the object of your stated hatred. My boss is the new boss, not the same as the old boss. My boss is freedom. Anything else is irrelevant to me. If you have a Microsoft centric business model that's working, more power to you. If your product is music instruments, then please do NOT switch to GPL products. Lionstracs doesn't need to add you to the list of competitors.

Ron Parker
Lionstracs U.S. General Manager and Marketing

Rick said, "All have their pros and cons, related to their age, of course. But I builded a company and earn a life for me and eight more people employed in my company (not to talk about our families) thanks to Microsoft operating systems, languages and products. As an example, no other OS is able to run last generation windows applications side by side with a 20 years old MS-DOS application. I've seen the raise of Novell NetWare operating system. My company builded one of the biggest (for that time) WAN of Europe when more than 80 banks have been linked to a big IBM S36 thru almost 100 Novell Netware servers. Then, I've seen the fall of NetWare when Microsoft started networking with NT. I've seen the start of Novell-IBM-Apple software component model (CORBA) and its fall because of Microsoft's COM (surely worst and buggy, but it runs; not to talk about the hundreths of COM object commercially available) I've seen the start of IBM OS/2, who never raised because of windows NT So, if you like linux because of linux, then good, no problem. As already said, linux is surely better for certain tasks. But, please, giev to Bill Gates the credits he gained."
Regards

Ric