Korg and Roland products don't give me any trouble. They are well designed and thought out products that simply perform correctly according to their documentation and have excellent support in youtube and on the web.
But do they support Linux or other open source solutions in their products or support? If not, you answered a question I didn't ask, and instead moved the goal posts. (Not that I personally care about linux or open source, but I could see where someone might... I'm just saying that if lack of that support is turning you off to Yamaha, I don't see a lot of it from other keyboard mfrs either, and you haven't shown me otherwise.)
But since you mention it, as far as I've seen, Korg and Roland offer no web support comparable to what yamaha offers at yamahasynth.com. You've got rolandclan and korgforums but little to no official representation there. Yamaha also has their ideascale for submitting product/feature requests.
Personally I'm wondering myself if Yamaha signs your own paychecks for trying to do a little damage control on their lousy reputation on the web.
Nonsense, but thanks, since ad hominem attacks are among the best indicators of someone having a hard time making their case. ;-)
BTW, other Proprietary Yamaha products they try and rope you into:
Pedals.
Bluetooth Dongles.
Cubase.
I gave you pedals up front. But basically, companies that make their own pedals tend to want you to use their pedals. Put differently, if Yamaha and Roland expression and half-damper pedals are not interchangeable, why is that only Yamaha's fault?
I don't know about anything Yamaha-specific in terms of bluetooth dongles, but I'm not that familiar with them... are you saying Yamaha boards work with their own bluetooth adapters but not others? As for DAWS, while it makes sense for Yamaha to emphasize Cubase which they own, the DAW support on the Montage equally supports Ableton, Logic, and Pro Tools.
Once you're sucked into their ecosystem it's tougher than quicksand to extract yourself.
Sounds like someone who prefers an android tablet to an iPad. ;-) Apple has a much tighter ecosystem than Yamaha... but still, for music, iOS beats Android, and I just like to use the best tool for the job.
Yamaha users are like Scientologists. Everyone's wrong and only they know the truth.
I'm an equal opportunity keyboard player. Over the years, I've bought more keyboards from Korg than from anyone else. But I've also bought numerous Yamahas, Rolands, Casios, Nords, Kurzweils... and every single one of these companies has boards that I think are great, and are the best choices in some circumstances, and I have good things to say about all of them (and complaints about all of them as well). I'm very happy with my new MODX7... but I can also list out for you a lot of things that I think other boards do better. If a board doesn't do what you want, then don't buy it. But I choose a board based on its sounds and functions, not marketing philosophies.
Not to mention they make everything from Chainsaws to Snowmobiles.
And Kurzweil is owned by Hyundai. And Casio makes cash registers. Who cares?
they are not your only option in musical hardware if you look closely at the specs.
No mfr is your only option, but it's not about specs per se, it's about sound, functions, the feel of the keys, the travel weight, operational ergonomics... and sometimes a Yamaha can be someone's best choice, and sometimes it will be something else,
