On Fri, 4 May 2001, serge wrote:

First of all thank you for managing of this wonderful website - it helped me a lot. But one thing i wonder, is you don't write anything about using PD on windoze. I'm using PD mostly on windows, and having a lack of information concerning this. Got Linux as well, but a lot of soundcards are just not supported bythis wonderful in all other sides OS. Thank you again for managing of this site. Khanukaev Sergey, komposer, audio designer.

I have received more than one request of this type. I have given the issue a lot of thought. I am only personally interested in Pd as it runs on Linux. I post source code that contains precompiled binaries on www.pure-data.org. Most, but not all of those who contribute objects to Pd follow Miller's lead and post a tarball of both source with Linux binaries and another of source with Windows binaries. On www.pure-data.org, I post only the source-with-Linux-binaries tarballs. This is especially problematic for Windows users, since they usually don't have access to a C compiler and so can't make any use at all of the source-with-Linux-binaries tarballs. I decided not to include the Windows distributions anyway, for the following reasons.

1. I am a very public Open Source advocate. This advocacy is part of my

profession and livelyhood. If I were to post Windows software on a web site that I run, it would raise very many eyebrows and have a significant negative impact on my career.

2. More than enough information on how to get the windows versions of the

software is provided on www.pure-data.org. I just don't serve the files myself. In most cases, I envision users going to the actual site from which the software originates to make their downloads, since they are more likely to find the very latest versions there.

3. Pd runs much better under Linux. Once you install the ALSA drivers for

your sound card and put the low latency patches for Linux on, you have a DAW with unmatched powers.

(jfm3)