Re: Steinberg's progress report on new notation software

[David Kastrup]

Tim McNamara <address@hidden> writes:

> On Aug 8, 2013, at 5:06 AM, Jan-Peter Voigt <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> I'm not that surprised.
>> During the last few years I became something nerd-like. After beeing
>> a Mac-User for a long time, I now only use Ubuntu or Debian and all
>> its related tools for my everyday work.
>> So for me using lilypond is a quite natural thing and I am getting
>> better and quicker using emacs - well, frescobaldi is still my
>> lilyeditor.
>> But most people I talk to say something like: "I want switch on my
>> computer and immediatly work with my everyday tools without needing
>> to touch the keyboard! Beyond the mouse there is a touch-screen ..."
>> To see, that one is giving away a lot of control over his own work
>> that way, is not a matter of course.
>
> Difference in end-user philosophy.  
>
> Most computer users do not see themselves giving away that control
> because they didn't need it or want it in the first place.  Linux
> distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, etc., are simply inappropriate
> tools for probably 98% of computer users- which is exactly why the
> market share of those OSes is what it is.

Uh, that's quite an absurd characterization.  If you take a stock
GNU/Linux distribution like Ubuntu, it does a lot more painlessly and
out of the box for the end user than a stock Windows install.

> Most users need a hammer and a screwdriver- Linux is a whole machine
> shop.

No, it _offers_ a whole machine shop.  But the standard desktop from a
typical desktop distribution does not get into your way any more than a
standard Windows desktop.

> For the people who need the machine shop, Linux is the thing they
> want.

For the people who prefer the machines coming with a Linux desktop
distribution over the machines they can buy for Windows (and you can buy
a lot!).

> Most people want to use their computer like they use a refrigerator or
> a toaster: just use it, no reading of documentation necessary.

Uh, my 77-year old computer-illiterate mother runs an Ubuntu
installation because I refused continuing to support a system I don't
even use.  Do you think she _ever_ read a piece of documentation?  She
does not even know the names of GUI elements.  Makes for challenging
phone support.

> Similarly LilyPond is probably not the most appropriate tool for most
> people just looking to print out some chord charts for their coffee
> house open mic night.  I don't think that it's presented as the tool
> for those folks- LilyPond is aimed at the people who want that
> fine-grained control over output (although for people like me, writing
> lead sheets for jazz combos, the default ways of doing things works
> well for almost everything and only a few tweaks are necessary.  A few
> minutes and I've got charts for everyone that are vastly more readable
> than Real Book charts).  I find it faster than MuseScore, which I also
> tried, and the output is vastly better than Finale.

LilyPond has a learning curve.  It's perfectly feasible for quick and
dirty work once you get beyond that.

> I don't really know who Steinberg's target market is, although it
> looks like it is more towards the LilyPond end of things.

Well, LilyPond has no user interface.  You write files in its file
format with a text editor yourself.  It's safe to say that the typical
light user of software will not particularly fancy that, and I would be
quite surprised if Steinberg went there.

Personally, I am glad not to have to learn yet another GUI.

-- 
David Kastrup