(practical) open source

["Christopher Sorg" <chris@xxxxxxxxx>]

This has been a good discuss to see RE: microsound.  Apropos to both
microsound and open source, I've just finished using Linux and open
source software for two sound installations at the Reinberger Galleries
at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and I'm very happy with the result.
I'm currently using Pure Data on both machines.  One is running some
custom electronics, data converted into sound, the other is capturing
audio & video, manipulating it real-time and archiving it.

I've been using Linux for many years, beginning with old Slackware
distributions, but I'm a long-time hacker.  Until more recent Red Hat
and Mandrake distrubutions (Mandrake 7 comes to mind), I wouldn't have
recommended it to anyone but die-hard computer geeks.  The newest
distributions have fine installation interfaces and are in many ways
easier to use than Windows installations.

There are several things I would recommend for people trying out Linux
for sound use at home or for installations.  One, make sure that your
hardware is supported by Linux.  READ THE FAQS.  Most modern hardware is
covered, but some older video, audio and other hardware may give you a
harder time.  Even some features of newer hardware may not be supported,
or not easily supported.  For instance, I've had a recent driver
struggle with video input on my NVIDIA VIVO card, and have had some
challenges in configuring the tuner on my TV card.  For video
input/capture for installations, this can be a headache.  But in most
cases, Linux detects hardware pretty decently.  Using the most recent
kernel & distribution can help.

The second recommendation is determine which distribution is best for
the kind of work you want to do.  I've managed to use Mandrake 9.1 for
my most recent installations, but not without some headaches.  Mandrake
Linux did not have many of the packages I needed to support much of the
multimedia software I wanted to use, so compiling and installation
software took several days of internet searching and installation.
Package dependencies are a pain sometimes, especially if you're
interesting in using Pure Data with video capture.  I've done it
successfully, but it's not for the faint of heart.

The wonderful thing about using open source operating systems and
software, is that it's free and you can modify it to suit your needs.  I
managed to use two old computers for installation, a Pentium 233 and a
PII 300, so the systems were essentially free as well.  In our
disposable, throw away economy, it's pretty easy to find Pentium and PII
systems for cheap or free to run Linux/open-source software.  I needed
to write some extra external objects for Pure Data to allow for parallel
port input/output, so I looked over some code and did it myself.  I also
needed to create a "mkdir" for Pure Data, so I wrote that as well.  I
wouldn't have been able to do it without the GNU license.  I also plan
on distributing these externals soon, so I'll be contributing back to
the communtity.  Feels pretty good to share like that.

Besides all the feel-good stuff, I'd say that I would not have been able
to do what I'm doing with another system, at least not affordable.  Macs
easily have the upper hand with software--Max/MSP/Jitter and Pure
Data/GEM are excellent packages for A/V installation.  The Pure Data
distribution for Mac OS X is also looking like one of the best.  But Mac
hardware tends to be on the expensive side, and with PIIs sitting in
dumpsters, how can one resist?  Linux + PD and a host of externals (PDP,
PiDiP, maxlib, GEM, etc) allow you to capture and manipulate video as
well as audio, for a fraction of the cost.  And forget Windows.  Jitter
isn't available yet for Max/MSP Windows, and PDP & PiDiP for Pure Data
haven't been ported, so there is no realtime support for video capture
to hard disk in Pure Data, and very few video manipulation objects
exist, except for GEM, which is primarily for OpenGL stuff.

So, all things said and done, Linux is a fine choice for the artist.
Just give yourself some time to scrounge the internet and restle with
packages, READ THE FAQS, and everything will work out great.

Chris

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Christopher Sorg
   Multimedia Artist/Instructor
 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
  Columbia College Chicago
   http://www.csorg.org
     csorg@xxxxxxxxx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

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