[64studio-devel] [64 Studio] #152: Drop terminatorx package from base install, remove dummy libmad

[Daniel James]

Hi Free,

> if we wanted to offer such a script it would be better to not
> use third-party repos directly, as we don't have control over them and
> they might break from time to time.

That's true, but if we put these patent-encumbered packages on our apt 
server, that is legally no different from putting them in an iso image - 
it's still distribution.

As the craziness of the software patent system is now biting companies 
like Microsoft, I'm confident that we'll see some reform, to make it 
more sane, quite soon. In the meantime, we still have to be very careful.

> What do you thing about trying to contact Steinberg and ask them to
> allow re-distribution of those headers? That would make possible to
> build and distribute a fst package.

I have asked Ico about making a co-ordinated approach to Steinberg 
through linuxaudio.org. If that fails, we could try again via an OEM 
partner, making a commercial argument. There is already hardware on the 
market which supports VSTs on embedded Linux, but I've no idea if it's 
GPL compliant. The latest model I have seen has an amd64 Turion 
processor, so it could be running 64 Studio for all I know :-)

Cheers!

Daniel