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Originally Posted by charles maynes  your comments are noted, but when you consider the numbers of possible installed units (which I would gather to expect would not exceed 250) the value of open source does lessen. |
I think you have reversed the link between Ardour (the open source component) and the X-Dubber. Ardour wasn't written to make the X-Dubber happen. The X-Dubber is a product that exists in part because Ardour exists. Ardour was under development for years before Harrison got involved (or SSL, for that matter), and its existence, functionality and future development are not based on the sales of some number of units of any particular hardware product.
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If Harrison does abandon the platform, which is not an "if" but a "when" statement,
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I suspect that a little research will reveal that Harrison continues to provide support for products that are older than ProTools.
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the users could take over the software development. In past instances this does not generally prove workable.
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I am not aware of any examples of a previous open source pro-audio oriented product. By contrast, there are at least a dozen major open source software projects in the world (just little things like operating systems, web servers, databases and so forth) that are effectively maintained by their user communities. If you're rooted in the pro-audio world it can be tough to see how deep and wide the impact of open source software really is, but if you read the IT trade press you will realize that these products are seen as more than viable alternatives to proprietary software, and in some cases are the market leader.
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When you compare this to the installed base of an app like ProTools, you end up with many more user vested in the ongoing success of the product family.
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Its far from clear to me that the ProTools user community can do much one way or another about the ongoing success of Digidesign/Avid. I think you may also underestimate the size and vested interest of the Ardour user community.