A bit of a Linux journey (Dave's distro-hopping redux)

[Jay Vaughan]

> So, first stop - since I've been using Ubuntu Studio 32-bit
> (http://ubuntustudio.org/) on my laptop with a relative degree of  
> success, I
> thought I'd see if there was a 64-bit edition - which there is.   
> But while
> reading reviews of it, I remembered that actually I'm not  
> completely happy
> with Ubuntu Studio.  I think it's quite promising, but despite doing
> relatively little with it so far, I've already encountered a few  
> seemingly
> silly problems which made me question whether it was what I really  
> wanted to
> use.  I'm sure once it gets past it's teething stage, it'll  
> probably improve,
> but at the moment I'm not quite convinced by it.
>

I've used Ubuntu Studio extensively for over a year now, and I don't  
know what you're talking about.  What are these issues, Dave?

We just boot it up, fire up the 3 or 4 softsynths of interest (pd,  
zynaddsubfx, asynth, hydrogen), our sequencer of choice (seq24) and  
away we go.. instant jam, no fuss.

So I'm very curious about your issues.

> Ubuntu has certain limitations which have advantages for ease of  
> use, but
> Ubuntu Studio trips over itself a bit and thus for me loses those  
> advantages
> a fair bit, prompting me to ask whether it's actually worth it!?   
> (I'll admit
> it's a fine line, but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my Linux  
> boxes.)
>

This 'perfectionism' I suppose is inapplicable to me, because I don't  
use UbuntuStudio as my main production system - just for music  
jamming when I'm at Stans place. Since I have a linux box at work (it  
freakin' rocks ass), and a Linux system at home for development  
reasons, I don't get too fussy about the way UbuntuStudio is set up  
and configured - it just plain works for me..

>
> The live CD worked great, and the install was even easier than  
> 64studio.  I'm
> pleased to report that so far I'm extremely happy.  Admittedly it's  
> early
> days yet - this is only the second day I've been using it - but so  
> far it's
> great!
>

Realtime kernel?

>
> Ubuntu Studio - while it looks promising and certainly doesn't  
> suck, I'm not
> convinced by it just yet, though I'll be keeping it on my laptop  
> for now
> anyway.
>

I'm interested in hearing your continued experiences with this  
distro.  I'm surprised - a little - that you've got this conclusion -  
for me UbuntuStudio is so far really a solid, stable Linux OS for  
musicians and artists ..


> I expect I'll still do most of my music work in Windows, but Linux  
> has some
> pretty interesting music software available for it, and I hope as  
> time goes
> on that'll get better and better and I'll use it more.  (In fact,  
> I'm sure
> that this is already accellerating thanks to the influx of Linux  
> users on
> Ubuntu.)
>


I just finished setting up my home studio, completely, for the first  
time since arriving in Vienna, and I've got a Mac OSX setup and a  
Linux setup for both options .. so stay tuned for more details about  
this too ..

;
--
Jay Vaughan