Saturday, November 23, 2013
Linux and theaters make a smooth-running ensemble
www.nytheatre-wire.com: You're an arts organization. You needed the press release yesterday. The latest production notes should have been circulated by now, and the newest musical arrangements are there for your approval, if only you could get them from your email to the actual media player. Theater companies spend enormous amounts of their day communicating with the many people it takes to put on a production. However, the routine failure of their computer systems is often added to the enormous stress in keeping up with the work.
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7 comments:
Linux systems require much more tech savvy to troubleshoot and with the microsoft emulator you will suffer a loss in performance. Using a linux system is great because there are free and open sources programs but many of them are not really that useful. There are no good CAD programs, the audio editing suites such as Ardour are not supported by manufacturers of audio interfaces which means that you need to hack the interface to work with your system. Get a windows or mac system if you want reliability because a small mistake when changing system settings on a linux system can completely crash the system.
This was not an article I was expecting to see at all, for several reasons. Like Luke said, there are fewer programs that will run on Linux, and even fewer when it comes to the specialized tools needed for a theatrical production. Linux has a higher learning curve and is non-intuitive for many people by the time they encounter it, as they're accustomed to two operating systems- Windows and Mac. And looking at the author's credentials, I'm not sure she's the most qualified person to speak on the intersection between open source and drama.
So I hate enterprise systems as much as the next guy, and they're notoriously bad at doing what they're advertised to. However, they receive consistent support because the company is being paid so much. In the end, an org isn't buying the software of an enterprise application, they're buying the technical support that comes with it.
I don't think Linux is a viable solution for a theatre, at least, not right now.
It was interesting that the author blamed the computer technology for backups in communication before questioning the people operating the systems, which might have been my first approach. The author makes a lot of points that seem to make sense, but they really only do in the long run if the users have the time to go through the process of learning and understanding the system. I think one of the major reasons why Microsoft and Apple systems are so much more popular than Linux is that the "pre-packaged" systems are just that much more user friendly overall. Open source software is definitely an option, and a lower cost one at that, but it also is sure to take more time to use effectively.
When it comes to open source software and initiatives, I'm one of the biggest supporters. That being said, the nature of live entertainment requires software that can repeatably handle high stress operations reliably. While open source software may be able to do that, commercial software allows for a much higher level of accountability when it doesn’t.
Linux is another poor choice for theatre end-user terminals. *nix style systems are great for servers, but not a great choice when it comes to demanding production work. Mac OSX is unix based, and I wouldn’t even trust that for production.
Buy the software. Its expensive, but if you can afford it, then your theatre is at a level when you can’t afford to not have it.
I am a die-hard unix user, and have not owned a machine running a windows OS for 8 years. It was actually 8 years ago that I converted an old IBM Thinkpad to run Ubuntu Linux, marking my first transition into the world of open-source operating systems. The transition was remarkable, a computer that had been all but bricked moments before, suddenly functioned like it was brand new. Now I have to agree that Linux might not be right for all aspects of theatre, CAD being a good example, however I do think that the article raises some great obvious reasons not to run with a Windows infrastructure. I disagree with Frank's mistrust of Mac for theatre and think that it would be a fine alternative to Windows and definitely easier to maintain and use in the longrun.
I read the article's title and was somewhat curious, then I read the article and kind of just laughed. Yes, Linux is a fantastic OS for servers and other enterprise systems, which is why it is no surprise that it has a strong foothold in that market. That being said, it is beyond silly to give end users Linux machines. It is just not an option. The UI is not intuitive nor is the application ecosystem nearly wide enough to accommodate most users. There is a reason that Linux has not seen widespread consumer adoption..
I was surprised seeing this article's title. However, just a brief reading of this article made me go what is this person saying. Yes, some of what was said is true, however, because Linux is more prevalent among power users, it is not the idea choice. It has somewhat of a learning curve and a lot of distro choices. Maybe if you used Ubuntu and didn't need to do a lot of media editing, you would be fine. So maybe an SM/PM could use it. However, designers stick to Windows/Mac for your needs!
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