Author Topic: (RFD) OS X or Windows? (CLOSED)  (Read 11199 times)

matt

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Re: (RFD) OS X or Windows?
« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2015, 11:41:33 AM »
Sorry to dig up this old thread.

Just one question :
why not using libraries/tools that are available on both (all) systems, like g++ ?
I know there are libraries that make an application look 'native' on the OS it's compiled on (I am thinking of wxwidgets at the moment).

It'll also be available on Linux sytems as well and this is free software.
Which, in turn, would mean, that you'd have to respect the GPL (or whatever is used for these libraries).

Just my 2ct
Matt
« Last Edit: June 15, 2015, 06:37:42 AM by matt »

Artur D'Assumpção

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Re: (RFD) OS X or Windows?
« Reply #16 on: June 14, 2015, 08:47:35 PM »
Hi,

We've thought about this issue and came up with a conclusion:

At this moment the Manager component (software that runs out of the I/O racks) will run on Linux, on a very lightweight Linux distribution, such as Lubuntu or Xubuntu. We are still testing both and will eventually decided which one we prefer. Of course there will be no problem in running it on any other Linux distribution if one wishes to, we are just low balling the hardware requirements so you can run the Manager on a small format (cheap) dedicated computer. - remember we are aiming to an affordable solution.

We have discarded OS X and Windows for several reasons, one, because you will want to run on separate computer so you have keyboard focus all the time, second, also to avoid having to maintain 2 different software versions, third reduce costs (licenses). For this reason, Linux was an obvious candidate. The main application lib we'll be using for the Manager (and other apps) is Qt.

The main trigger for this decision, was when we decided we wished the user to be able to interact with the manager both through the console keyboard and the computer keyboard. So, if one wants to use the computer keyboard, one need keyboard focus, so if you have the Manager installed on the same computer as your DAW (which was the original idea) you would then have to switch between applications to have keyboard focus, which really sucked!! Having a separated computer was a must for this.

To keep costs and hardware/OS requirements low, Linux was an obvious choice. It will also have the benefit we could concentrate only in one software version and not two (Windows/OS X).

Cheers,

Artur

« Last Edit: June 14, 2015, 08:52:10 PM by Artur D'Assumpção »

matt

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Re: (RFD) OS X or Windows?
« Reply #17 on: June 15, 2015, 06:55:22 AM »
Hi Artur,

I have absolutely no problem with the software running on Linux. There are very good reasons for that as you pointed out.
In fact, I have been a long term Linux user and always watched the developments regarding i.e. a Linux daw.

Qt is fine - and is also available on many OS.

What I couldn't find out yet is, if this computer (and the software) will be a commercial product in the end or will it be freely available regarding schematics (and layout) of the boards as well as the source code for the software ? 
Maybe that's already stated somewhere in this forum but I couldn't find it right away.

Thanks
Matt

Artur D'Assumpção

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Re: (RFD) OS X or Windows?
« Reply #18 on: June 15, 2015, 09:28:41 AM »
Hi Matt,

Thanks for you comments!

Since we are going to much off topic, to an important subject I decided to create a new thread where we can continue this discussion: http://forum.sslmixed.com/index.php?topic=843.0

Cheers,

Artur
« Last Edit: June 15, 2015, 09:48:16 AM by Artur D'Assumpção »