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Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

wavacity.com

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Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#121

Post by asddubs »

lost_tourist wrote: post #118
asddubs wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO the spyware angle was overblown. they added telemetry to the dev builds. the real thing I took issue with was adding a CLA after the fact

So the stuff available on ubuntu/arch don't have spyware? I never heard about these changes, I did know some company bought it but didn't think much about it at the time as I don't use it a lot, but when I need it, it's quite handy

I haven't kept up with what happened since the original controversy, but at the time it was about telemetry in dev builds (i.e. building from the repo) only. In any case it doesn't have spyware unless you think firefox and various other programs are also spyware.

Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#122

Post by zlg_codes »

rcme wrote: post #117
autoexec wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Audacity is an indispensable utility. It’s great to see it and other “real” software on the web. It's been a very long time since I used it, but didn't Audacity turn evil, add a bunch of networking code it never needed before, and start spying on people? ( https://fosspost.org/audacity-is-now-a-spyware/ ). I remember people reverting to older "safe" versions. I guess that doesn't much matter for this web app since…

I'll never understand peoples' obsession with equating telemetry with spyware. As an application developer, I need to know that my application is working appropriately for my users. It's not sufficient to rely on manual bug reports. If someone doesn't like that, then that's perfectly fine in my opinion. Just don't use the product. To accuse an application developer of spying on users is a bit much imo.

Why should a user ignore when a developer has the means to spy? Telemetry is used as a false metric for a lot of bad decisions that make sense for the numbers but don't improve the product itself.

Even A/B testing could be considered an ethical hazard because it disrupts the user's understanding of the software for the sole purpose of decisions that, frankly, devs should have made before telemetry.

Users should be able to trust that their software won't be blabbing over the network about what you're doing. In an age where privacy is attacked from all angles, it's the least a developer could do.

Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#124

Post by londons_explore »

jrajav wrote: post #31
londons_explore wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Test of if an OS is ready for regular users: Does drag and drop work? Can I choose a random image/file somewhere in one tab/application and drop it into another. Just testing that now... * Drag HN logo to Whatsapp Web: Pass * Drag from Google Photos to Photopea: Pass * Drag a zip file from Google Drive to Dropbox: Fail. * Drag an attachment from an email from gmail into an online hex editor: Fail Conclusion: The web…

You could just as easily construct an arbitrary usability test over interop that the web platform excels at while current desktop apps do terribly. For instance: * Send a link to a Google Drive document to another person on WeChat: Pass * Send a link to a Microsoft Word document to another person on Slack: Fail The web has different paradigms and some of them are an improvement, one being hyperlinks, another being in…

But you can drag and drop a word document to slack...

Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#125

Post by hyperhopper »

anon____ wrote: post #50
hyperhopper wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, they aren't wrong. Web applications are applications. Who says native mobile applications are the only kind of applications? Though if you call the PNG file that's a menu for your restaurant an app, that's just wrong.

Can you apply that image file to help you order food? Then that's an application. And that's why they are wrong. If anything and everything can be called an app then the word lost its meaning.

Apply the image file? Do you apply road signs?

Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#127

Post by erhaetherth »

lost_tourist wrote: post #119
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I didn't expect Photopea to be any good but now I use it all the time. Perfect Photoshop replacement for light editing.

better than gimp?

Well, I find Gimp unusable because I learned PS hotkeys 15 years ago and whenever I press them in Gimp it does random things. Photopea is nearly a 1:1 mapping of PS. Can't comment too much on feature parity, I don't do anything too crazy. Some cropping, expanding canvas size, maybe desaturate or adjust levels, use layers and masking. Magic selection. Maybe some content-aware fill. No artist/painting/fancy brushstroke stuff though.

Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#128

Post by nativeit »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #21
evrimoztamur wrote: post #2

Alright, it's at a kind of uncanny valley situation where we have Windows XP applications running real-time in our browsers. Is the end-game just a universal sandboxed VM that's cross-platform? What do we do next?

Fun fact: when you don't give a shit about whether your UI looks like what "the OS looks like" (no offense to Tantacrul, but audacity clearly doesn't), you can get a surprising amount of work done. This isn't a Windows XP application, it looked like this well before Windows XP existed.

I strongly support using OSS every chance I have, and do what I can as a non-programmer to support OSS projects, but as someone who trained on industry standards for audio editing (since the 1990s, starting with Syntrillium’s Cool Edit Pro) I found Audacity quite difficult to use. I really don’t understand this philosophy that prefers when applications lack any cohesive visual design language. “Designed by engineers” is every bit as problematic to me as “engineering by designers”.

Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#129

Post by rcme »

zlg_codes wrote: post #122
rcme wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll never understand peoples' obsession with equating telemetry with spyware. As an application developer, I need to know that my application is working appropriately for my users. It's not sufficient to rely on manual bug reports. If someone doesn't like that, then that's perfectly fine in my opinion. Just don't use the product. To accuse an application developer of spying on users is a bit much imo.

Why should a user ignore when a developer has the means to spy? Telemetry is used as a false metric for a lot of bad decisions that make sense for the numbers but don't improve the product itself. Even A/B testing could be considered an ethical hazard because it disrupts the user's understanding of the software for the sole purpose of decisions that, frankly, devs should have made before telemetry. Users should be ab…

I’m not advocating that users ignore the possibility of spying. All software has the potential to spy on you. But that does not mean you can publicly accuse a developer who wants to add telemetry of spying.

> Users should be able to trust that their software won't be blabbing over the network about what you're doing.

Says who? That’s just your opinion. My opinion is that if an exception happens in my software that makes it harder for me to use, the developer should be aware of the issue and fix it so that the software works correctly in the future. There isn’t anything wrong with your opinion, but there is something wrong of accusing the developer of some type of impropriety just because they want to use telemetry.

Re: Wavacity – a FOSS port of Audacity to the web

#130

Post by zlg_codes »

rcme wrote: post #129
zlg_codes wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should a user ignore when a developer has the means to spy? Telemetry is used as a false metric for a lot of bad decisions that make sense for the numbers but don't improve the product itself. Even A/B testing could be considered an ethical hazard because it disrupts the user's understanding of the software for the sole purpose of decisions that, frankly, devs should have made before telemetry. Users should be ab…

I’m not advocating that users ignore the possibility of spying. All software has the potential to spy on you. But that does not mean you can publicly accuse a developer who wants to add telemetry of spying. > Users should be able to trust that their software won't be blabbing over the network about what you're doing. Says who? That’s just your opinion. My opinion is that if an exception happens in my software that ma…

Says responsible developers. Good software doesn't need to phone home or report to the dev that they clicked widget X instead of Y.

Telemetry is what happens when lazy or complacent devs move forward in their software but decide to be 'data driven'.

What's wrong with accusing someone of having the ability to spy of maybe spying? The point with technology and humans is, if the ability is there, it's not 'if' it will be abused; it's when.

Software that doesn't phone home or have telemetry never has to worry about that moral hazard. User data doesn't belong to developers, and that includes behavioral data.

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