Apparently, the short letter I wrote in response to Wired's article "The Digital Audiophile's Toolbox" (part of a series on audiophiles and high-quality digital music) was worthy enough to be included in an article displaying some of the feedback that Wired Magazine had received. It is not as cool as actually being published in the print version of Wired the journal of the computer/technology industry, but I still feel proud. I especially like the fact that in their "I want more!" section (feedback suggesting improvement) as opposed as the "Dear sir, you are an idiot" section (feedback suggesting that only hara-kiri will restore Wired's honor). This is good, since I was in a negative mood when I wrote the letter, and I was a bit afraid that I was being too combative. Looking at other feedback, it is clear that I was not.
As published:
While your article "The Digital Audiophile's Toolbox" was interesting, it would have been nice if you had been platform-agnostic in your choice of tools. Not everyone is using Windows. Since I use Linux, I can't use iTunes, Exact Audio Copy, Winamp or MP3 Tag Studio. Luckily, the creators of Lame were farsighted enough to realize that people running Mac or Linux operating systems might want to use their programs.
In terms of official College support, Linux is considered an "unsupported operating system"[1] by Computer Services. This makes sense when one looks at the most recent Computing Survey available online, from the fall of 2003. Only 2% of students reported that they ran "Unix" (which in this case would include Linux, BSD, and other similar operating systems).
Unofficial support would most likely be found at the Harvard Computing Society.[2] While I know that some Linux users congregate there (because I have seen them), there does not seem much documented sharing of Linux knowledge. The HCS-Linux mailing list has been dormant since December 2000. It might be that dozens of Linux-using Harvard students are subscribed to this mailing list, but that we are all too smart to ask any questions. It might be that of the 100 or so people on the list, I am the only one still at Harvard.
It is possible that this is a Catch-22 type situation. There are no institutionalized resources for using Linux because there are not enough people using Linux, and nobody uses Linux because they do not have localized support resources.
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[1] As a User Assistant, I am an employee of FAS Computer Services. Of course, the views and opinions on this website are mine alone (hence the name and URL).
[2] I am also a member of the Harvard Computing Society.