[microsound] iPhone apps

[David Powers]

Well I make a living as a developer, and I can tell you that there's
no realistic alternate to using PC actually as far as cost, with a
$300 computer you are good to go, there are tons of wonderful free dev
tools on that platform (free, as in money not necessarily open
source). If I was going to make a tool "for the masses" I would
definitely do it on PC no matter what aversion I have to the monopoly
supplying the operating system. I do think that whatever you think of
PC, it's definitely lowered the cost barrier for doing a lot of things
with computers.

I used a Mac to develop on the job and the same types of tools simply
don't exist, or if they do they cost a lot. I found it to be really
painful trying to code on that machine even after trying to tweak my
environment for a year.

I like Linux for running servers of course, but I just don't have the
kind of time to figure out how to run such a system well I always got
stuck and gave up though I made a few trials. I still would like to
maybe give it another go but life is short and I'd have to be doing a
project where it was clearly the best choice and wouldn't feel like a
huge time drain. I'm not an IT person so generally I don't have a lot
of time to worry about what's going on with my OS under the hood...

Anyway, just to keep this tied back to music, what goes for dev also
goes for music in my opinion, you can make really good stuff using all
free tools on a PC if you so desire, a lot of weird plugins I like
just don't exist on any other platform...

~David

On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 7:16 AM, isjtar <list at isjtar.org> wrote:
> damn straight : )
> about point 1 though, I am generally sceptic about "open", that is to say they many costs involved, a mac may not be the most expensive one, with regards to knowledge, time etc.
> but valid points all the same.
>
> On 13 Apr 2011, at 22:58, David Powers wrote:
>
>> I think it is clear that there are now three "Big Brother" companies
>> in the technology world.
>>
>> It amazes me that one of these three companies has managed to create a
>> set of consumers who seem to shut off their brains when it comes to
>> the commodities and practices produced by said company, even when
>> those consumers are supposedly politically aware artists. I use
>> technology by all three companies, in the end I'm going to use
>> whatever gets the job done.
>>
>> But I have BIG problems with:
>>
>> 1. Developing "open" tools for a platform that is not only closed, but
>> PROHIBITIVELY expensive for many working people (we see this with many
>> art/music+technology tools developed at universities)
>> 2. Cheerfully providing free marketing for said platform without doing
>> any critique
>> 3. Hypocritically denouncing one of the other companies for being
>> "closed" and "evil" without applying the same critique to the new kid
>> on the block, which in my opinion is now both quite powerful, and
>> engaged in practices that are as or perhaps even more disturbing than
>> what the traditional evil giant.
>>
>> Ironically, while on principle I dislike all monopolies, the
>> traditional Big Brother company has opened up quite a lot and softened
>> some of its practices.
>>
>> ~David
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