Audacity acquired by Muse Group

[GS3]

I am not sure what this might mean for Audacity. They say it will remain "free" but I wonder if it will remain free open source.

https://www.musictech.net/news/industry ... musescore/

Audacity has been acquired by Muse Group, which also owns MuseScore and Ultimate Guitar

The popular recording and editing software will remain free.

Audacity, the open-source audio recording and editing software which launched in 2000, has been acquired by newly established company Muse Group.

[cliffcoggin]

Having been released as open source surely it can not be taken into captivity?

[GS3]

Having been released as open source surely it can not be taken into captivity?

That is my question. But I guess they cannot do anything about older versions or about newer forks developed by others but they can take over and make their own "official" line built on the last open source and claim ownership of that line from then on.

[jimallyn]

I am not sure what this might mean for Audacity. They say it will remain "free" but I wonder if it will remain free open source.

Watch the video. They make it quite clear in the first minute or two that if will remain free AND open source.

[Bolle1961]

read this, they are talking about telemetry in Audacity
https://twitter.com/nixcraft/status/1390514806608777216

[GS3]

read this, they are talking about telemetry in Audacity
https://twitter.com/nixcraft/status/1390514806608777216

So the user will not have to pay with money, only with his soul.

I wonder if there will be new forks without telemetry or if the telemetry can be removed from the new versions.

[cliffcoggin]

There is plenty of opposition on Github and two volunteers to fork Audacity so nobody will be forced to pay anything. Though I understand little of the argument there, I am suspicious of the new owner's prevarication when trying to justify the changes.

One thing I am certain of is that companies do not spend money for the altruistic reason of improving their customers "user experience". Commercial companies exist for single reason of making profit. There is nothing wrong in that per se, but it is dishonest to claim their actions are for the benefit others.

[GS3]

"Audacity has been acquired by Muse Group". I am not even sure what that means. "Acquired"? How and from whom? Or do they just take the open source version, add some spy code and their brand?

Not only am I not against someone making money off of something; I am very much in favor because that is what keeps the product going. I see too many Linux programs which I like but they are just abandoned and discontinued. Someone did it in a moment of inspiration and abandoned it when they got tired and most of the time no one is there to take up the project.

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”

― Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol 1

I often wish there was more money to be made with Linux software because we would see more and better software available. The problem is that there is more money to be made with spyware than by other means and so Google and MS carry the day.

I often admire Wikipedia who have managed to set up a truly useful thing for anyone to use freely. Maybe one day some Linux convergence will happen but today it is like herding cats.

[Flemur]

Good luck to Muse Group, audacity continues to be one of the buggiest pieces of software that I've used in a long time.

Yes, sir, I'm ready to record at the invalid sample rate of "4410(-half a zero" on the GUI) with the microphone set to blank, and the "ordina Channels" set to "lse".

ocenaudio recorded nicely without any errors, warnings or glitches.

[Avraham Tsaban]

Please read the official explanation and update. It is not as bad as one showed it:
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/pull/835
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/discussions/889
It is a diagnosis and statistics - only telemetry, no 3rd party, and fully opt-in.

[Portreve]

I heard about this in a podcast I was listening to the other day on the way to work.