Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does someone have any actual text explaining this without the marketing preamble and cute Youtube speak?
Once you get past the cute intro it’s a really great history of audacity, interview with some of the creators, and an overview of the ui challenges the new head of ui/ux has to face (keep it simple, but make it powerful, etc.)
Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
161–170 of 205 posts
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#162course of actions: - go to github - download all source code - download last installation version ... - say farewell to audacity ...
Yes, don't look up who Muse Group are. Don't wait for anything to happen at all. Just knee jerk.
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#163I'm quite concerned about this. I use Audacity quite heavily and have for many years. It's become an important part of my workflow. I'm not opposed to it in theory but after seeing how they handled Muse Score, I really worry about how Muse Group will attempt to monetize Audacity. If anybody has insight into the plans, I'd love to hear them.
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
IMO the problem is that OSS developers hate any change that’s made to a UI because it breaks their workflow. As a result, a lot of OSS has old style interfaces, and it’s hard for UI designers to convince the others to make changes.
Related is this: sometimes you have been using a piece of software for such a long time you can no longer judge whether the user-interface (UI) is any good. You've simply mastered the steps (and keyboard shortcuts) needed to accomplish a task and it now feels "natural", no matter how clunky or clumsy the steps remain. And there's also a widespread belief among developers that making a task easier in the UI means "dum…
Not in every case. For experienced/professional/power users of any software, what matters is maximizing the information density in time of both input and output. Sometimes the best way to do that appears arcane.
I want to be able to accomplish much in as little time as possible, so I want a high temporal input information density. So that might mean using a mouse instead of a trackpad for precise aiming and scrolling, or using keyboard shortcuts instead of on-screen icons. It might mean there are different mouse behaviors for ctrl-drag, middle-click-drag, etc.
I also want to be able to receive as much information about the state of the application as possible in as little time as possible. Too little density and I have to keep more state in my head and spend time jumping around. Too much density and the senses are overwhelmed. This might mean, for a CLI tool, that zero output is the best output in case of success. But for long-running processes that might be a progress bar under a list of log entries. For GUIs, the optimum might mean that there is a lot of information and a lot of actions on screen with reduced whitespace, which seems intimidating at first but is necessary to communicate the state of the system to the user.
So convincing any power user to "let go" is like asking someone to give up their legs for a scooter. Sure, it's simpler to go places in mostly straight lines with a scooter, but linear motion is only one of the many things people do with their legs that justify the arcane UI of unstable bipedal locomotion. We walk along streets, run along trails, jump over obstacles, dance, spar, climb, swim, etc.
This is not to say that scooters have no place, or that every tool is at a global optimum. But any "different method" that someone wants to propose will very deservedly receive pushback if it does not fulfill the full purpose of the old method.
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope. Even if the API were used illegally it still doesn't make it right to make threats of possible usage of physical force. Ask nicely and/or send a DMCA, period. The DMCA absolutely applies here, since the whole request was for the repository on Github to be removed, and Github is an American website that follows American law and receives DMCA requests.
It's my understanding that Github also operates in China and has to follow Chinese law, so that Chinese citizens are allowed to use it. Maybe you can advise on Chinese law? I don't see why it's not right to get the police involved if it turns out to be a criminal matter in China. (Not saying it is, I don't know)
There's also no indication that Xmader is a Chinese citizen. The Anti-CPP message on his profile could also mean he's from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or anywhere in the world. The person making the threat seems to be Russian and MuseScore seems to be registered in Belgium.
Even if China could be involved, if MuseScore prefers to solve this using physical force (their words) rather than a simple DMCA, that paints them in an even worse picture than anyone ever in the history of open source.
This was a mafia-like threat, plain and simple. There's absolutely no justification for it, even if it's possible to happen.
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find the UI of recent versions of GIMP to be very nice for the simple image editing / processing that I do.
One thing I don't understand is the move to monochrome icons. I'm really bloody good at recognizing shape+color combinations; the old icons were ugly, but I was able to find the tool I wanted in an instant. After the redesign of the icon pack, I always find myself slowly iterating through every icon in the toolbox to try to find the particular abstract monochrome shape I want. I think a redesign of the icons was nece…
That said, Photoshop also uses monochrome icons and it can help in some ways to avoid distracting from the image which you are working on. I am not sure what the best compromise would be.
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
> OSS needs more UI/UX people, and I think Tantacrul is fantastic for this. True, Blender really exploded when they re-designed the interface. I hope someday GIMP team understand that. The software is solid, but the interface isn't great. Some very simple workflow changes made Blender easier to use.
> True, Blender really exploded when they re-designed the interface. So this must be what happened... over and over I've heard about people switching to Blender now, even many professionals. I tried it many many years ago and found it, quite honestly, awful. I guess I should download it again and see how things have changed.
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really just wish GIMP (and Audacity now that I think about it) had a command palette, where I could type in the name of anything found in the menu or assigned to a keyboard shortcut. I don’t use both of them a lot so all of my time is spent search menus for what I am trying to do.
If you press the ‘/‘ key you can search the menus. Very useful. I use it all the time now :)
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
They likely now own the copyrights held by the primary developers and all the trademark rights to the Audacity name and logo.
This is how the Bukkit disaster happened. Microsoft "bought" the leading Minecraft server software, hiring some of the major developers and I guess not telling anyone else, and some of them were unamused that they were (in their eyes) doing free work for Microsoft when their colleagues got hired. So they rescinded their GPL licensing of their contributions and sent DMCA notices. Which pretty much ended the project, e…
Re: Audacity Aquired by Muse Group
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where do you get UI/UX people in from?
Learn. That's what I did. The issue is that many designers and engineers loathe Usability and Accessibility people (like Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman). For me, it all started with Don Norman's excellent book The Design of Everyday Things [0] (nee The Psychology of Everyday Things ). Reading that book changed the way that I view the world. I can't walk through a door, anymore, without evaluating its affordances and us…