Sat, 17 Jun 2006

I have been using mac os x for the last week

...and after two years of not using it I can honestly say it has not improved for multimedia at all. The reasons I switched to GNU/Linux for audio production have only been reinforced by the way open source audio applications and code libraries are implemented on OS X. This is not the fault of open source developers. It is only proof that OS X is not a serious platform for audio development.

Grip is a open source program that runs on GNU/Linux. It does an excellent job of ripping audio CDs and encoding them to ogg/vorbis or mp3. The only program I can find for free on OS X is called Ogg Drop, which is nice but hasn't changed in four years. Yea proprietary development.

ogg/vorbis playback is equally bad with strange third party codecs and unsupported obsolete applications bearing the responsibility of playing back open source encoded media.

Compare this to a default Debian GNU/Linux system and you'll find OS X is virtually non-functional unless you pay individual developers for their niche applications which you are not allowed to learn from or improve by editing their source code.

My overall experience with OS X is that it hasn't evolved at all since I stoped using it. Despite Apple's commitment to open source software under the GUI, their dedication to open source desktop applications is unsuprisingly absent. In it's place are the low class shareware hackers, who spend their time reverse engineering OS X to make it "value added". The whole while with the wool over their eyes so they can't see the thriving alternative right in front of them. Shareware hackers! Move on! There are alternatives that work better and have more users. Your niche is closing in.

posted at: 01:06 | path: /linux | permanent link to this entry

About

I work with communications, open source software, sound and video. I'm the most happy when I work on all of these things at once. Sounds, Systems, Robots, Rocking Tigers.

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