I hope you all consider this an appropriate post for this list.

I have been very upset at a certain manufacturer which I have decades of experience owning their products.

I love their machines! But they are pissing me off by doing things like:

1) Bundle software which only runs on Proprietary Operating Systems.

This is an excuse to increase street price. Linux users who want just the hardware are forced to pay for something they do not want and cannot use.

2) Publishing only a partial MIDI implementation

3) Using a secret API which only their closed source Editor can access, and which only runs on Windows or MacOS. ($$$).

So if I want a Korg product (like their new Microkey Studio!!! I have the perfect application for this!!!), then I must also pay Microsoft or Apple, in order to fully use the thing. I must also must pay a premium for software I cannot use and may not want or need.

I do not think this is fair or right!

Here's an idea:

NAMM is going on right now. This is a time when all of the manufacturers all get together.

I think the Open Source community has a lot of clout now.

My idea is to draft a Pledge to Support Open Source Community, which we will try to get manufacturers support for by the next 2017 NAMM.

My list so far is this:

1) Publish full MIDI standard. No hidden APIs which only closed-source tools, which only run on Windows or Mac can access.

2) Unbundle the hardware from the optional software. Don't force a linux hardware owner to pay for software he cannot use.

3) Consider including sample editors or performance programs as hackable C programs, Perl or Python scripts, and also sample patches in popular open-source music programs such as CSound, SuperCollider, or Pure Data.

Does anyone want to be a co-signer on this,

or have anything to add?

I think it would be awesome to get the top 10-20 people

in Open Source Music world to endorse this first thing.

People like Miller, Onyx Ashanti, Ico, Julius O. Smith,

Servando, Katja, Alexandre, Matt, IOhannes, Cheeto,

Richard Stallman, ... c'mon people, help me out...

Wow, that would pack a whallop!

I think we could have a major impact on hardware manufacturers.

This is a way for me to take my complaint with Korg and make this a campaign which could help users of other H/W vendors stuff as well.

Thoughts?

--
May you, and all beings
be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)