Linn open source, where will Naim go ?

The speed with which the Squeezebox open source community has got the BBC's new AAC HLS radio streams up and running is a good demonstration. As far as I'm aware Naim and Sonos haven't even confirmed if they can or will support it yet.

Not really. A good demonstration would be if the open sourced Linn software supported the new streams. All that the Squeezebox example shows is that there are enough developers for that platform. Will there be enough of a community to support Naim if they went that way? 

@GregW, Bananahead: I am not sure the success or the failure of a single project can demostrate anything. In the history of software development, there are prominent examples of projects that badly failed in spite of apparently very good premises. And the other way round, of course.

@Bananahead: Who knows ? Creating a large community of developers takes time. It has to be backed by a genuine commitment and/or financial investments. Open source does not mean that developers work for nothing or that the software costs nothing, see http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html. But the choice of going open source can bring revenues on much shorter times. It could allow Nain to take advantage of existing open source tools without infringing copyleft rights, for instance, to speedup its development cycle.

I think the Squeezebox example is an exception. When Slim Devices first developed their system it was Linux based as well as later having a Windows option.  My first Slim Server (as it was then known) was Linux bsed and ran on an old Sony PC board in a home built system, it was very efficient and stable.  My son maintained it for me but when he left home I had to build a Windows version as Linux was beyond my limited capabilities. It is a crying shame that Logitech have killed it as it is so flexible and has such a wide following.

It's still alive, kinda, it's just that many of the existing assumptions regarding use cases, streaming integration, etc. have changed, and the overall project has been subsumed into other projects. Also, the original user interface used SDL for its graphic layer, which has been deprecated in favor of SDL2 and requires a significant amount of re-coding (not backwards compatible).

Ah, the wondrous catch-all term: open source. All it really means is that the source code of the software is available to everyone, usually under license. Generally it also means that any work done by the community is also available to everyone, and that there are no royalties on that software.

I assume that Linn are adopting/accepting other developers working on their software. Not sure of the depth of that - generally the core interfaces (APIs) with the firmware on the devices is not fully open, only the APIs to other software or user experiences. Otherwise they risk some developer bricking everyone's Linn hi fi, and I can imagine an Exakt customer might not be too pleased. It also suggests - I take it from the link - that Linn are adopting some third party control software. This is, in one sense, an acknowledgment that Linn can't develop this kind of software fast/well enough to keep up, and it's better left to others. It allows Linn to focus on firmware and hardware. 

If Naim went the same way they would allow developers to build the Naim app and, potentially, allow other apps, and potentially even streaming integration software, based on open APIs. To an extent, using things like UPNP rather than a proprietary system is already a step in this direction, and some features of open apps will already work on Naim devices, up to a point. 

In in my experience, if it's done well it can be helpful, providing you have a community of interested developers or third party companies who want to integrate. Also provided the core of the software is at least reasonably sound as a starting point. The danger is very much that the software becomes too directed towards the passionate minority (eg Opera) or that enthusiasm peters out or goes in phases and you end up with a bit of a mess (arguably Java). Certainly things like support and documentation tend to go out of the window. 

I'm not against doing it, but it's not a panacea. 

This licensing move may also enable Linn to integrate open-source components into their own software without contravening those licenses ... usually works both ways!