I hope not. But I am fearful that the US electorate has not grasped yet what it threw away.

I really hope it’s the “Any” key. I have upwards of 40 ys of modal forms from which there is no escape because they demand I press any key to continue…

I suppose what I mean is that i am happy to select whatever software is best for the task at hand. I have no issue with paying for software if it serves my needs. In a few cases, that limits my options to running windows as commercial versions are unavailable on Linux, and it is my hope that more commercial orgs start making their wares available for Linux, especially in cases where there’s no available alternative.

As for splitting hairs on the difference between gratis and libre, life’s too short (so if I used incorrect terminology, c’est la vie…)

Fair enough! My only work with video has been very lightweight stuff and I haven’t needed much else. Shotcut definitely has quirks, though I know it a lot better than kdenlive. Have not played enough with Resolve to comment, though I have it on my list to try when the opportunity presents itself.

Kdenlive and shotcut are also great.

There are lots of individual applications that do pretty well in and of themselves (darktable, gimp, krita, etc.) they have varying degrees of niceness. But what Adobe can do has no analogue in Linux land (paid or not) - it’s the multi-device interoperability. It makes for unparalleled workflow. I am not an advocate your Adobe - I really wish there was someone else that did it, and I believe it is something worth paying for. Figma maybe? (but it’s all cloud and was nearly knocked out by Adobe…)

(FWIW, I’ve never found gimp to be pleasant to use, but that is only my own subjective experience. Others like it and that’s a good thing.)

I tend to agree. And people need to realize that Adobe’s secret sauce is not in their apps, it’s in the multi-device interoperability. I love lightroom, but it’s not the photo editing ability (darkroom has that), rather it’s the fact that I can seamlessly work the same catalogue from any device (even if I don’t use their cloud for anything but smart previews).

I think Adobe would cash in if they supported Linux - for want of a workable alternative, I’d even pay them.

Music device manufacturers need to support Linux too. NI Maschine (and others) is simply a non-starter…

This is very good. The higher those numbers go, the more pressure there will be for better official support for both HW and SW.

FOSS is fantastic. But lack of options (FOSS or paid) for a few of my use cases keeps me stapled to Windows and WSL. Unfortunately. I’m hoping the momentum shifts.

For sure! I think we’re going to have to move away from a one-size fits all car design. For general city use, I use a Chevy Bolt, but for longer (infrequent) runs, I’m still stuck with ICE (I’d use a hybrid if I had one). In Canada, the range really does go down in the winter. (and Canada has not taken charging infrastructure very seriously - mandatory for adoption)

Anyway you look at it, these are very, very positive developments.

The key is that with the right use case, it frees up lithium to be used where only it is suitable.

(for my needs I’d be fine with sodium…)

Tax slips don’t lie…

At most, you might be able to get midi mode to work (if you scrounge the internet for experimental and old reverse engineered scripts.) But almost certainly not the core Maschine functionality (ie - the main reason for buying maschine in the first place).

Even if you can get it to work none of it will be supported and you’re always at risk of an update rendering things inoperable.

It’s worth noting that only the old Native Access installer runs in wine (with coaxing). The newer one does not, and from what I’ve read, the break points are features that will never be supported in wine.

Wine is clever, but it’s always an incomplete game of whackamole. A workaround at best.

The whole thing is truly frustrating.

(your luck may be better than mine of course!)

The Adobe case is a big one. For me, it’s lightroom that has no real Linux counterpart. The app itself isn’t where the magic is - darktable exists. The magic is in the interapp interoperability - bi-directional syncs and edits in any platform. FOSS is very unlikely to create something like this (would love to be wrong) as it’s less of a tech challenge than an enterprise architecture challenge with a component systems falling in line. This sort of thing requires money to be executed effectively, unfortunately.

Really hope overall user base in Linux can grow enough to catch attention of SW/HW manufacturers, but have been hoping this for many, many years…

For me, it’s not the DAW (Reaper works fine), but this is not the case for every DAW and it must be recognized that switching DAWs is non-trivial (nor should it be expected). In my case, it’s the HW. I can likely get my interface to run (unsupported) but my Maschine is a non-starter. Yes - I know there are a few drivers for similar HW around written by clever folk who’ve done reverse engineering, but it only covers a few minor use cases and is, at best a science experiment and not something one should ever depend on even if it did work.

SW is a problem too - yes most plugins can be coaxed into working, but certainly not all. Add to that the underlying tech is usually wine, and it’s a perpetual game of whackamole to maybe get the stuff you paid for to run.

The folks writing these bridging tools are not too blame - it’s brilliant, wonderful work. Fundamentally, it’s an act of good will that one can’t rely afford to fully depend on if it even does work. I love FOSS, but it’s not everything - I certainly don’t expect a free ride, but I do want the option to pay to run what I want.

The issue is the HW and SW manufacturers - they need a critical mass of potential users to be bothered to commit to developing for Linux. My hope is that as user bases grow (in places like India) the cost/benefit analysis shifts.

Dang… Was hoping to kill two birds with one stone and solve that space elevator thing too…

/s

Exactly. Personally, I’m relegated to Windows with a healthy dose of WSL. Wish it weren’t so, but it is so.

For me, it’s the lack of support for the audio HW. Infuriating.

Not sure I follow (especially wrt poor kids?) - maybe I’m just missing the reference. I applaud using Linux on old stuff to breath life into it. But I suspect mass adoption would be harder than one might think. Easy to convince tech savvy folk to dive in and wrangle with it (for its numerous advantages and disadvantages), but the majority of folks won’t (they’d sooner move to Apple - with even more waste, proprietary bs, and cost).

Not saying this should be the case, merely that it is the case. (The more adoption, the better chance of better support from developers/HW manus, etc. There’s just a leap that seems very hard to make. Wish I knew how to bridge it, but the obstacles seem less of a technical thing than a social/psychological thing)

FWIW, I used it as a daily driver for many years. And that was back in the days when things weren’t as easy.

Unfortunately, to run the stuff I need to run, I’m pretty much stuck with Windows and WSL. (But with Linux on my old laptop.)

I’m probably not the audience that needs convincing, though.

Linux can breathe life into older laptops (if the HW is supported). It’s not for everyone (and downright infuriating in some ways) but it it does work very well for many things.