This is more of a testament to the awesome useability of GNU/Linux (particularly Ubuntu). In the last four months, I've convinced five other guys to invest all of their time and money into a completely GNU-based business venture.
It was rough at first, as some of these guys had heavy backgrounds in their part of our industry (using the proprietary stuff, of course) and they were unwilling to budge from their comfort zones. With enough gentle persuasion and demonstrations of the power of the masses, all eventually agreed and are really happy we made the decision to go with the F|OSS.
All of the guys now have the ability to install and administer Ubuntu 8.04. We also have all the equipment required to produce fully mastered (though not redbook, yet) audio cd's, video dvd's/blurays, produce CMYK printed material, design websites and cut vinyl without ever having to touch those other operating systems.
We've saved such a ridiculous amount of cash and we have more power and freedom than any of the competition 'round these parts. Thus far we've configured a 24 channel RME HDSP audio production system with all the mics, guitars, drums and midi doodads we can handle. The aforementioned hardware is loaded into a machine that we use for mid-scale 3d rendering (dual quad xeon's powering Blender's awesome rendering engine).
God bless the community that's made this possible, that includes Mark S. over at Canonical and Paul Davis over at ALSA and JACK and Ardour and every other project he's a part of, and also the innumerable army of developers that continue to rock the plastic daily to make everyone's lives better.
Not to shamelessly plug our most zealous efforts, but you can learn more about it at
http://illustriousproductions.com.
Lincorporated a media production firm with Ubuntu Studio & Supported Hardware
