Hardly have time to write new and original content this days. Some of the emails correspondence makes pretty good blogging material. So I always have a desire to dedicate a special section for this. Just never find the time to do so. Until now. Hopefully this will be a good way to add some content to this blog. Here’s the first, and hopefully many to come.

Letter

From Marc (31st Mar 2019 4:43 PM):

on atom absed?
i got a black screen on atom n2800
BENCH OF RETARDS

From Marc (31st Mar 2019 10:26 PM):

hi after waitng few minutes ON A NONSENSE black screen
installation began
after waitng loooong to let the setup finish
scanned my Library took a hear test
i installed latest firmware AND ALL MY TIME got to trash!!!!!!!!!!
i’m using Windows 2012 core optimized for free that sounds a WAYYYYYYYYY better than your crap system
DO YOU REALLY THINK I WILL PAY A CENT FOR THIS SHIT
fuck you retard and put your stupid system in your big asshole

Response From The Snakeoil Squad

It has taken 3 long years for us to find our first negative review. It’s long overdue! Seriously we expected to cop a lot more flak than this.

First thing we have to clarify. We are not doing this for an income. The money received will be used to fund this project. As we have mentioned multiple times publicly and privately - the money will be used to fund domain registration, web site operations, current and future servers, etc. If the money runs out, this operation will cease to exist.

There already is a somewhat healthy war chest at the moment, so the lights will continue to run for years to come.

Back on the topic. The best Windows setup I like is a 2 PC setup running JPlay. The playlist is completely command line driven. Now that is an impressive system, and I reckon it is on par (if not slightly ahead of Snakeoil at the time). Userbility aside, the setup is also expensive - 2x 2012 licenses, 2x PCs, 1x JPlay license, 1x Fidelizer, and probably more that I cannot remember. That is a lot of money (if one is going legit).

Linux? You get the same timbre out of 1 box, you do not lose the flexibility of remote control. And with CPUset we are confident it will sound better than the 2 PC setup. This is a no brainer.

A token donation does indeed activate some extra beta features. That’s about it. Beta is another word for unstable. When we devise the activation system, the number of donars we expect is 0. Why this number? because:

1. We do not think any audiophile will support a project that blatantly calls itself Snakeoil
2. Donate money to become testers

It was meant to be a joke (yes we are that immature). And we expect everybody to behave the same way you did. We were horribly wrong - there are just too many good people out there.

Snakeoil is unlike any other audiophile operating system. With everything else, they are telling you what is “good sound". Snakeoil takes a different approach, it gives you the options and flexibility for you to find and discover what “good sound” means to you.

The better the audiophile you are, the better you can push Snakeoil OS. Our two slogans basically sums it up best - “Music, Your Way", and “Designed By Us, Defined By You".

Now if we look at a 1 machine solution - we definitely do not consider Windows 2012 to be good. Subjectively, Linux has a more natural sound, better timbre, more resolving, better spatial separation, lower noise floor, and more. Objectively the Linux sound is just cleaner, leaner, and better. Snakeoil just pushed this a little further - one of the lowest latency machines out there.

There is a down side. The better your system becomes, the worse things may perceive. Music you thought previously were “reference grade” before are exposed as what they are - warts and all. What you thought is a recording of the “ambient space” turns out to be cheap DSP effects. The increased resolution is not necessary a good thing. The material you can play on a good system is very limited. It gets harder to enjoy long sessions.

This may not be what you want. Everybody has their own definition/idea what “better” is. At the end of the day, the audiophile must always focus on himself, and less on the gear. There’s no reason to switch if you find the music you like sounds better to you in Windows. There is no reason to switch if the change to Linux is not bringing you joy.

If you invest some time, it’s possible to tweak Snakeoil to sound like Windows. It might not be easy (probably require a new kernel), but definitely doable. This is the true power of Snakeoil OS - you have the power of choice. And this pool of choices, include sticking with Windows.