It seems like the FOSS community is continuing to grow, and FOSS apps keep getting better (Immich reallh blew my mind recently), which is a big win 😎 but there are still many apps I use that I would kill for an open source alternative. I am curious what you guys think? Are there any apps you’d love alternatives for?

  • catnash [she/her, ae/aer]
    16•7 months ago

    Software for the production of music and audio, like Ardour but for more platforms which more typical people could use more easily, plus plug-ins for that ecosystem. It’s a major sticking point how corporate that field is for me.

      • catnash [she/her, ae/aer]English
        6•7 months ago

        I’ve looked at these, especially LMMS, but in my view they aren’t enough (or good enough) to completely escape non-FOSS.

        Sample Library plugins, my area of interest, are under two or three banners: Kontakt, Decent Sampler and SF. None of these are appropriately free, although Decent Sampler shows the most promise of breaking down the class divide in this area.

          • catnash [she/her, ae/aer]English
            1•7 months ago

            This is about FOSS and I can’t see that Audiotool is FOSS, and Samplers are not Sample Libraries. Sample Libraries are ubiquitous among producers who want a good sounding recreation of a real instrument but cannot afford (or morally support), for example, Pianoteq’s modelling algorithms or Spitfire’s premium libraries, neither of which are FOSS, or the instrument itself or a session player.

            As I said, the most promising multi-sampler or sample library software with an active community was Decent Sampler, which isn’t open-source and now supports DRM.

            • @[email protected]
              1•7 months ago

              It’s clear that Audiotool isn’t FOSS, but I put it in because obviously there isn’t FOSS which fits your needs, and the next best option is a free community driven app with own samples made by the community, apart of those by default.

              • catnash [she/her, ae/aer]English
                2•7 months ago

                Decent Sampler (and the attached Pianobook community) fits my needs perfectly well, with the exception that it’s not FOSS.

    • TwigEnglish
      6•7 months ago

      At least Reaper has Linux ports, better than nothing.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•7 months ago

      Live production stuff as well.

      So much of the available “industry standard” software is fully proprietary and Apple only.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•7 months ago

          Most of the apps to interface with pro level mixing consoles and lighting boards are Mac / iPad . Very few for Android, limited Windows options and pretty much nothing for Linux.

          • catnash [she/her, ae/aer]English
            1•7 months ago

            You’re correct but in my experience everything I’ve used at a venue is analog, running almost entirely off of the mixing desk, without an external computer running Win/Mac/Linux. And half of these consoles I’ve used had a USB port which was used for, among other things, storing templates. This allowed for our front-of-house mix engineers and monitor mix engineers to cruise along because most of the work was done at home or in other venues. The software for writing those was Windows/Mac at the least, I don’t know if any used Linux and I’m not sure if they were “human-readable” text formats.

            At that price point I’m not so motivated to work on something FOSS, I care more for working with the hand-to-mouth musicians than the large institutions.

            • @[email protected]English
              1•7 months ago

              Before I retired I was also almost entirely analog.

              But these days it appears that even the gear targeted at small bar bands is leaning heavily toward a fully digital workflow.