[linux-audio-user] Best distro for Audio??

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

On Fri, 2004-08-06 at 10:28, Russell Hanaghan wrote:
> Firstly, thanks much for all the replies and ideas...
>
> As expected, many have dedicated and loyal opinions to their distro of
> choice...it's one of the many attributes that makes Linux so awesome!  
> 
> I guess I need something that has packages to save some time and then a
> "package" support that keeps stuff up to date as much as possible...
> 
> I guess that is:
> 
> Planet CCRMA
> Debian
> Suse?
> 
> From what I see on the CCRMA site. looks like they stay as current as
> possible...I think apt is what they use? 

Yes, I use apt for rpm. Rpm is the basic underlying package manager. Apt
provides a higher level layer that makes sure that dependencies are met
when you install packages (apt was originally written for Debian and the
.deb packages, was ported over to use rpm packages by Conectiva). 

> Is it relatively free from dependency hell with lots of server 
> repositories? 

Yes. It should be completely free from that particular hell if you just
use the Planet CCRMA repository :-) If you add other apt repositories
(dag, freshrpms, atrpms come to mind) there may be conflicts, but I try
to be as compatible as possible and resolve them when/if they arise. 

If you have the time and bandwidth you should try several distros for a
while and stay with the one you like most. 

-- Fernando

> I don't live that far from SF bay area...I could always go bug Fernando! :) 
> {BTW Fernando...I was part of the crew that refurbished the Audio Visual 
> dept. at Stanford about 10 years ago! }

Wow... we're now in the middle of another renovation, our main building
is being rebuilt (was damaged in the '89 quake)...