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Why Isn't Cakewalk Open Source?


Haden

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5 minutes ago, pwalpwal said:

cakewalk is dependent on the windows audio stack, game over regarding a linux/unix build

I recall that was an issue for the attempted port of Sonar Platinum to Mac some years back...

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37 minutes ago, abacab said:

I recall that was an issue for the attempted port of Sonar Platinum to Mac some years back...

yeah, i think that was a custom version of... wine was it? (some OS wrapper for mac to run win stuff)

 

 

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1 hour ago, pwalpwal said:

yeah, i think that was a custom version of... wine was it? (some OS wrapper for mac to run win stuff)

I think it was related to that. Not a full port in any case. It sounded more like a half-assed attempt to kludge the windows audio stack onto it, rather than re-write it for Mac.

And that was back when Cakewalk was still expected to turn a profit for Gibson every year. So no unlimited development budgets, and any Mac port would have needed to sell enough copies to make that effort worthwhile. So in the end, the project never got past the Alpha stage as reality set in...

Edited by abacab
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  • 1 year later...

Hello,

One thing is open source and another is free code, which has nothing to do with free in the sense of not paying, like free beer, but has to do with freedom: freedom to be able to use, modify, redistribute and even SELL a program. The only thing that free software requires is the source code to be available, although it doesn't oblige you to distribute it binary for free (in the sense of paying).

Cakewalk is excellent software, just like -in the area of 3D animation- Blender, a free software. And blender is an example of a free software business model that has undoubtedly succeeded. Can we say that the fact that its license is GPL implies that we have overlooked its great VALUE?

Like Cakewalk, Blender started as proprietary software. The same thing happened with Toonz, today Open Toonz. Open Toonz is not quite free, in the sense of freedom, although it is open source.

Open source licenses, compared to free software, are less permissive. It is an intermediate point between proprietary software and free software.

Most of the products that Microsoft distributes today are open source! Example: Azure, or Visual Studio Code. Most of the technologies we use today... like html5, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, typescript, and almost all frameworks, are free, open standards. The programmers who build Cakewalk every day are likely to be working with these tools that I just mentioned. Can we say that these products have no VALUE? On the contrary, they do not stop growing, thanks to the contributions (the work) of hundreds of programmers around the world, who send pull requests with new and interesting features. In no case are the original developers obliged to accept them, although they could.

Why would we want a program as good as Cakewalk to adopt a license like the GPL? Out of fear: we are afraid that tomorrow the project will be abandoned (as happened with Adobe Flash).

I beg BandLab that if at any time they think about abandoning the project unless they decide to sell it, they release it: this way Cakewalk will not die.

For now, I thank you for rescuing it from oblivion and putting it back into circulation.

All the best

:-)

Charlie Martínez

Quirinux GNU/Linux Developer

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3 hours ago, Charlie Martinez said:

Why would we want a program as good as Cakewalk to adopt a license like the GPL?

GPL? Never going to happen.

Cakewalk is proprietary closed source software, and highly dependent on the Microsoft ecosystem. It apparently would take a complete re-write to create a cross-platform Cakewalk application. The attempted port to Mac many years ago was a failure, even when Cakewalk as a company was still backed by Gibson. So it's likely that  the odds are even much worse for a port over to Linux/GPL. I don't see any incentive to open source it, and it seems to be doing quite well as is.

BandLab is supporting Cakewalk today as a path for its 50 million web users to step up to a full featured DAW. :)

https://www.bandlab.com/

https://blog.bandlab.com/category/community/

https://caldecottmusic.com/

@Charlie MartinezBTW, you just revived a thread that's been inactive for a year.

Edited by abacab
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