Well, it would certainly help if the Linux soundapps pages didn't suck so bad. It's all hand-edited HTML, no dynamic content, no user feedback or other portals, no real assessments of the software, too little information for the entries, et cetera ad nauseam.... the recent /. story reminded me that LilyPond has still less visibility than I like to imagine; comments from Linux users saying this was exactly what they had been looking for or even had been thinking of implementing. That makes you wonder, why is LilyPond so invisible, even for Linux users (btw, we have binaries for and users on MacOS X and Windows too.)
Looking for Linux and music easily brings one to your linux-music.org site, but that was a bit of a dead end really, as far as finding LilyPond was concerned.
So, with your post about updated pages, this seemed a logical first line of attack ;-)
I have lost count of the number of proposals I've received to upgrade the sites to some more modern format. As Robin Whittle described it, the pages are currently merely a monstrous "link farm", useful to some extent, but hardly state-of-the-useful-art. I have less than zero time to put into upgrading the site, and it is my hope that someday I'll be able to turn the whole thing over to the community to turn it into something more like what the community (myself included) would like to see.
Meanwhile, I continue to maintain the pages as a service. The only ad running is the outdated ad for my book, and I have not solicited advertisements (even though I can certainly use the income). I intended the site to be free of crap, and so it is (excepting some crappy software). It has been a way for me to give something back to Linux generally, and I'm happy with its success, but it is also truly awful (WRT its format). My only defense is that I'm completely self-taught where this stuff is concerned, I'm a musician by training and inclination, and I have no time to learn even the simplest things about PHP (or Perl or Python or any of sixty other things I'd like to learn). I'm half-way through the 2nd edition of my book (yes, LilyPond will receive due diligence in it ;), I have remaining obligations to AGNULA, I continue to write occasionally for Linux Journal, and I have an active teaching and performance schedule.
Btw, the mirrors for my site have been provided for free by the service providers. I owe much thanks to Matt Probst, Kenji Yasaka, and Georg Hitsch for their assistance and generosity, which is another reason I've kept the site relatively free of ads. I've passed the savings on to the customers... ;-)
Also btw: Jan, you were far from rude, and I appreciate your good humor. You really do have to poke me sometimes to make me move...
Finally, a note to all: If you get the chance to see/hear Han-wen do a presentation on LilyPond, be sure to go. He's a natural at presentations, and he stops at nothing at getting and keeping a crowd (in Metz last year he was literally grabbing strangers in the hallways, telling them that they *must* hear about LilyPond). The presentation itself is most informative and interesting, and I can almost guarantee he'll make a LilyPond convert out of you.
Best,
dp
