cinquante_neuf wrote:

Looks like Linux has made a significant inroad into the Mac/PC dominated "creative professional" software market.

I have been using this for less than a day and have found immediate benefits over XP (that was originally installed on the laptop - seriously this is much faster, the soundcard seems to be running at a better rate also.

cinquante_neuf wrote:

been using this for almost a week now.

My initial enthusiasm has been slightly tarnished by:

•The media player not including codecs for dvd, .aiff .mp3 (and probably aac wma etc) - i am not connected to the internet to d/l them, yet.

•Freebirth (a homage To rebirth doesn't load)

•pure data crashes when the computer hibernates.

•The browser seems to have problems with Audio CDs.

On the plus side:

•Switchable workspaces - this is fantastic; at the click of a mouse (or 3 key combination) you can switch between workspaces > have pd running in workspace one, audacity in workspace two, very fast to switch between them, I guess that this will be awesome in a live setting, switch between vst host on one workspace and the vsts themselves on another!

•Startup is a minute, rather than the 4 minutes for XP.

•Soundcard runs much better, I am currently using Jack which is such a clever program.

In fairness I have barely scraped the surface, let alone tried all of the video/image packages. All in all I would happily sacrifice the windows only vsts/programs for the functionality of this free, open source OS.

MiXCHure wrote:

That sounds real nice. What is the system specs that you're running?

cinquante_neuf wrote:

1.3 celeron /256ram(!)/40gig HD. - about 3 years old, and bottom of the range then!

Sorted out Pd crashing now. Ubuntu comes with a second media player that has a smaller cpu footprint and plays mp3s out of the box - still no DVD playback. Still no luck with Freebirth.

have started using ardour seems similar to protools (although I have only used the protoolsfree previously). Very impressive for free software.

Have also found hundreds of plugin effects shared between audacity, wired and a couple of other programs.

the entire package list is available at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/PackageList

djpepsi wrote:

don't forget the Reaper!

i had ubuntu on my lappy for an OS, moved to Sabayon now.

I'd miss my waves plugins on linux i think :(

gotta remember on progs like cubase, a massive amount (~50%) of CPU is taken up with the copyright dongle checking protection malarky :/

MiXCHure wrote:

I think trying all free software would be nice one day, but making the move from Windows XP to Vista is headache enough. I've always been interested in stuff like Ardour, though, but yeah, REAPER is so fucking dope, just a bit buggy sometimes.

cinquante_neuf wrote:

Installed pd extended 0.39.3 for GEM, everytime I open a GEM Patch it restarts the OS! hmmm :D






Do you have to run it through Wine or can it run natively?

I see your point about missing plugins - I still have a mac with Reaktor, Spektral Delay and some other goodies, I can't see NI releasing Linux versions in the near future, still i am happy with using both ATM :)

djpepsi wrote:

brrrr Wine, i tried installing something with that, it was a nightmare,,, don't know if there's a wine package, i was referring to running on windoze for Reaper. Although i'm guessing you could install it on VMWare, which would be pretty painless?

djpepsi wrote:

seeing Ardour you can compile your own binary with VST support, but no binary can be distributed. Now, if we could just find someone with a pre-compiled binary and is *cof* generous :D

cinquante_neuf wrote:

interesting^ some VST plugs would be the only reason for buying an M$ computer IMO.


I ended up killing my laptop, something (expensive enough to not bother getting it fixed) to do with the power supply :(((

Just before breaking the lappy I had Mint (another variation on Ubuntu) running Ardour, Sweep (really handy audio editor, can save to some nice exotic formats and has a scrubby tool that is fun to use) PD (still crashes when using GEM) Audacity, and some other non music programs - it ran like a dream and played dvds, mp3s and all other restricted formats "out of the Box". I also found ubuntu (and variants thereof) really easy to use/install new software - the appget(?) program makes installation a breeze without bloating the OS ;)

cinquante_neuf wrote:

...all the ones I needed anyway

djpepsi wrote:

Adept ;)

I just put Ubuntu back on my lappy, Sabayon was pissing me off freezing and the time kept changing to Guernsey for some reason