From alsa-devel-owner@alsa.jcu.cz  Wed Oct 21 02:16:53 1998
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Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 17:09:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Lewis <mlewis@burly.com>
To: alsa-devel@jcu.cz
Subject: good news for linux pro audio
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Hi all.  Check out this response from Creamware about my inquiry of Linux
support for the Pulsar
http://www.creamware.com/Seiten/products/pulsar_intro.htm

If you're interested in pro audio on Linux, let them know that they've got
a market out here.

- Mike

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 15:20:46 -0700
From: richard@creamware.com
To: mlewis@burly.com
Subject: Linux

Hello Mike,

The following was forwarded to me...

->

My brother and I run a small consulting shop here in Seattle.  We build IS
systems for businesses mostly in Java.  My efforts on this project would
be independant.  I'm a musician of about 15 years who's been waiting for
something like the Pulsar.  I discovered Linux about 3 years ago, and
can never go back to Windows.  I think there are thousands of music
geeks who can't stand Windows/MAC and would love to make professional
music on Linux.  I'm pretty inexperienced at low-level hardware
programming, but I've been looking at lots of linux driver source (source
code is good!).  I've also met some heavily experienced hardware guys thru
the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture project (http://alsa.jcu.cz) who
would probably like to get in on the fun.

<-

For your information, we are indeed considering releasing a Linux driver
for Pulsar, and have received several requests for it (a surprising number
- Linux is HOT now). At this early stage, all Pulsar development is being
done on the Scope platform (not the drivers, of course) but my
understanding is that a smaller, scaled down developer's kit will be
available for Pulsar at a later date. Regarding a time-line, I'm afraid
Windows, ASIO, and Mac drivers will be done first (over 50% of the
inquiries we get for Pulsar are from Mac users).

I'm the local Linux afficianado here in the US, but most of our developers
in Germany are quite familiar with it. I've been happy to see the sudden
interest in Linux as a viable alternative to (especially) NT. I've been
'playing' with Linux (and before that, MINIX on the Atari ST) for quite
some time, but have not been able to use it at work, unfortunately. I'm
stuck with Windows and, even worse, Lotus Notes!

I'll probably know more about our plans for Linux after the first week in
November. For now, I really can't confirm when, or even if the drivers will
be available (although, off the record, I'm quite sure they will appear).
There are a couple of other alternatives we're also looking at (BeOS, other
UNIXs). Like you, I haven't done a lot of programming at the driver level
(lately - in the old days I had to program sound card support for an 8-bit
sound card on an Apple II - that dates me - but I didn't know it was called
a 'driver' then!).

I agree, the availability of source code for your operating system, as you
have with Linux, is such a benefit! One advantage for us would be that we
could provide kernel optimizations for our software - or maybe even release
our own Linux distribution with the product.

I'm ashamed to say I haven't been keeping up with the ALSA developments
lately. They were interested in supporting our previous products, but I
don't know what happened there. I'll take a peek over the pond and catch
up.

Thanks for your interest, and adding to the Linux support request numbers!

Richard Homme
richard@creamware.com



