yep! I was originally planning to build my own multi-effect pedal based on Raspberry PI but now I am happy that I have my DWARF. So now we have to show the power of Open Source community
Now, if there are people out there that don’t understand that the years to come have in store many more and worst bad news at every level of out lives than the potential loss of a 300 bucks investment… you should probably start reading different newsfeeds.
I mean, companies and banks valued trillions are currently in serious danger of collapse on the medium/long run. We’re hitting inflation rates unprecedented in the last 40 years. China real estate sector is about to meltdown. Covid is still lurking. Climate change starts hitting hard…
So yeah, bad things can happen.
So now, we need to look ahead a find a practical solution to our little MOD problem.
@gianfranco, would it be possible to tell us how many people this community counts ? How many MOD users ? How many active ones ?
Before any action can be taken, we need to know our strength as a group.
This is a sad situation. As a tier 3 backer without a device (yet), I have still been following this forum almost daily to be ready when I receive it. I understand this is going to be a little more complicated than anticipated. I also understand that my disappointment and inconvenience is nothing compared to what the MOD team must be suffering right now.
As several have stated already, the past few years have been … weird, and many things we took for granted are no longer easy or possible. Anyway, I still hope to receive one day my very much expected MOD Dwarf, and I am sure the reboot team will try their hardest so that it happens. It may be the case that it won’t be possible, I am fully aware of it and I accept it (I actually accepted it already when doing the crowdfounding, although I didn’t expect at the time to be a likely situation, and most likely this is the same for MOD).
From Gianfranco’s message, I get the following:
They will do their best to deliver the remaining backers
They will do their best to keep the platform working (plugin download service, etc)
They will do their best to continue develop the ecosystem and go back on track for better times and bright future
Even if the reboot fails, they’ll do their best to keep the ecosystem alive thanks to its open source roots, so that people that received/bought devices can still enjoy them for a long time, and even see improvements/upgrades/new open source plugin development. Others (like me if I don’t receive mine finally) would be likely able to participate to the ecosystem via other hardware (Raspberry Pi + audio interface + midi interface - not as sexy or practical especially in live context, but still could do the job).
Anyway, I am maybe optimistic, but I keep my trust in the MOD team, and I will see if I can do more from my side.
I have questions, but I’ll wait a bit before asking that the team can sort out the current situation first.
wouldn’t that be totally opposite to the philosophy of the brand? I mean, I wish some big company would take care of the product but I don’t think it would keep the open source mentality
“Open source”, “FOSS”, “Shareware” - call it what you will - has been around for quite a while in some form. Selling the technology is not necessary. It’s already out there for anyone to use. The only restriction that I’m aware of is that proper attribution be given - just explicitly acknowledge that a particular project or product is using the information from the particular open source project. You can “fork” a project and “register” it using a different license, but you must acknowledge the open source information you used. Even if your new project is “closed source” - proprietary - the “open source” information that you are using is still “out there” for anyone to use.
And someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there is any proprietary software involved.
Open source can really be a advantage even for a private company. Thomann for instance might be more interested in selling units than the software (of which most source code is already Open Source anyway, and there to stay). Also, removing the open aspect of the product would make it way more similar to other already available commercial products and negate some of its attractivity. On the contrary, having an active community developing the plugin for you is a real good thing. For instance think of the recent work of Massimo on providing the MOD platform with a Neural Net based modeling solution.
And don’t forget that the deep heart of the MOD system is the Jack server which is an Open Source product.
The fears of buyers go in three directions @Dave_Parker
1 - fear that the purchased company has closed proprietary software that utilizes some OS components without properly propagating the license, constituting an OS license infringement and a legal liability.
2 - a concern that the produced IPs are properly licensed and released as OS and thus, cannot be backward reclaimed, diminishing their purchased competitive advantage.
3 - a general fear of OS, mostly due to lack of understanding. Lawyers are not coders and sometimes it is tuff to grasp all the legal implications and inheritances of the OS licenses.
“Cash is king”. Gotta keep the doors open. Retail sales bring in much needed cash. If not for the added cash from retail sales the whole project would have died long before this.
And the specter of lawyers adds a new layer of complexity I hadn’t even considered. The “law”, or “laws” and their interpretations and the involvement of lawyers will turn a “fast track” into a “mud pit” in a heartbeat.
Add in the fact there are all these different sets of laws/rules/interpretations in all the countries involved…
<Deep sigh>
Well, this is disappointing although not altogether shocking given the times.
Personally I’m a little bummed at the prospect of losing a few hundred bucks but I’ll hang on to the hope that I might one day receive my Tier-3 Dwarf Fouders Edition with no apostrophe.
thanks for everything, @gianfranco and the whole MOD team! as you know, i’ve been here from the beginning; i’ll continue to watch with optimism, to see how this group of visionaries and the associated community finds a path forward.
…and i’m still excited to see a Dwarf and Expression Pedal on my doorstep someday. for now, i’ve got shows and touring roaring back, almost all of which has my trusty DuoX (LE) and Foot Switch on the stage with me.
Hi,
Not a good news for me as a 3rd tier contributor. To be honest I really like Dwarf idea so I considered buying Dwarf in online shop recently so my question is: could i download all the stuff (additional plugins) promised to my contribution? There is a concern about future support though.
