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Re: [microsound] the politics of open-source (was: PD Linux audio workshops



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>> I don't really know all that much about using compilers, and it's
hard
>> for me to use software that requires the use of a compiler for
>> installation.

>what have software have you tried? there are packages and ports
>available in different formats for different flavors of linux or BSD.

lots of stuff. I know the whole "./configure ; make ; make install"
dance that everyone's told me about, but it rarely seems to actually
make anything useful happen (and yes, I do it all as root). Even fink
has failed me. It can take up to an hour (on GIMP, for example), filling
the screen with line after line of shell script, which is all a rather
elaborate preface to a usefully informative message that says "error:
can't install" or something similar.

>> Open-source software also tends to presume a high level of computer
>> knowledge to which not everyone has access.

>well, as a computer musician [even a glitchy one], you've got to have
>some skills with your tools. i think it's more a matter of wanting to
>take the time to read and experiment to learn, as opposed to access to
>materials that can teach you.

I'm well aware of that, and I *do* have skill with my tools. There are
lots of things that I *can* do with computers, but operating a compiler
happens not to be one of them. And it's hard to be motivated to
experiment without access to some kind of basic knowledge. I don't just
want my info handed to me on a silver platter, but I do need some kind
of basis to do my own experimentation. and so far I haven't found that
basis. I've been playing with OS and *nix-type stuff for a long time
now; prior to OS X, I have had brief flirtations with Linux (on my PC).
I'm a reasonably intelligent person, so it stands to reason that if I
can't figure out a compiler on my own, then I need some help, and I dont
know where to find that help (and I have looked).

>i only use a few tools [audacity, pd, csound], but lately have been
>using the windows side to save time. with a family and a job, i'd
rather
>spend the music time i have doing music instead of fixing my tools.
>however, i usually want to shower after logging out of win2k ...

Well, you actually articulate some of the reasons that I haven't devoted
more time to tinkering with command lines. I'd rather be making music!

>i'd agree that open source is politically much closer to what
>..microsound is culturally. i mean microsoft is the freakin evil empire
>incarnate- capitalism run amok!

OS and microsound also both share their genesis in internet culture.
Both of these tendencies could not exist in their current forms without
a prerequisite global digital network to enable the sharing of
resources. As such, both are ineluctably part of the same technological
framework that is shared with global capitalism. Indeed, it's global
capitalism that is primarily responsible for the development of many of
the digital networks from which we now benefit. So I think the truth is
more ambivalent. OS and microsound may, in somewhat different ways,
articulate some kind of alternative to the power relations and
structures of propriety found in global capitalism, but both are
radically dependent on global capitalism for their existence. That
doesn't make us hypocrites, but rather, deconstructionists. It depends
on what we make of that dependence. 

>bill gates == j.p. morgan
>richard stallman == leon trotsky

Well the Stallman == Trotsky equation is pretty accurate. :-/ But that's
not necessarily a bad thing...

Phil

"The gravest danger our Nation faces 
lies at the crossroads of 
radicalism and technology."

George W. Bush
17 September 2002

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
Phil Thomson 
http://www.sfu.ca/~pthomson/
http://centibel.vze.com/ 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/databenders/
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 

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