[linux-audio-user] Suitable distro for audio works

[tim hall]

I see no reason why you should get flamed for your remarks :-)

On Wednesday 24 December 2003 03:23, LinuxMedia wrote:
[snip]
> So I like that fact that SuSE takes care of the other things while I get
> on to the business of converting windows/audio people to linux/audio
> people (heehee).

Well I can totally see the logic in that. You pays yer money and you makes 
yer choice ... Or something like that anyway.

> Sometimes SuSE audio programs seem a little outdated, but I just
> installed the latest version (SuSE 9.0) and it's not too bad. The audio
> programs are (only slightly) old. But this is to be expected. But as
> soon as I understand all the other things nessesary (the changes in KDE
> 3.1.4 for instance) then I will go out and install the newest versions
> of my favorite linux audio programs. By then I will have explored the
> "convenence features" of KDE that will make producing sound/music with
> linux that much easier.

Um, I'm not aware of any 'convenience' features in KDE that make making music 
easier apart from the fact that you can turn off artsd - that helps :-) I've 
spent a fair amount of time & energy making sure that KDE doesn't b0rk my 
audio apps. I think we're more or less through that. I like 3.1.4 - IMCO it's 
nice. But I wasn't aware it could help with music making. Do elaborate.

On Wednesday 24 December 2003 05:06, Dave Phillips wrote:
>   PlanetCCRMA is definitely has the more current apps versions, but
> AGNULA Demudi is really quite nice too. I have both systems installed
> here, and I must say that I'm impressed by the AGNULA core system. Yes,
> it's not pretty (yet), but it's well designed where it counts, and the
> 1.1 release promises to bring the system into a more up to date
> condition. I'm not sure when AGNULA 1.1 will be ready for release but
> I'm sure it's Real Soon Now. ;)

Well I'm using Agnula/DeMuDi and enjoying it lots, getting some results and 
learning a whole lot more. I think it all depends on what style of system you 
want. I was already using Debian, so all I had to do was add a couple of 
lines to my /etc/apt/sources.list and let apt do the rest. The Agnula distro 
goes a long way towards making the Debian system easier to configure with 
hardware detection and even (shock!) some of these new-fangled gui things.

The Agnula Project seems to be picking up pace in recent months, sure 
Agnula-1.0 is old. 'Stable' in Debianspeak means 'so old that even your 
mother would flirt with it'. Some of the packages for 1.1 are already 
available, the ISOs with installer are going to take a little longer I 
believe. 

Debian offers an insane degree of flexibilty, which I like - I'm 
double-booting Woody/Agnula-DeMuDi-1.0 with 
Testing/Unstable/Agnula-DeMuDi-1.1 and chrooting between the two. It's a 
little bit Heath-Robinson, but I like that. Not all of it is actually 
configured properly yet, due to my brain/time limitations, but generally I'm 
finding at least one combination of possibilities will work in any given 
situation. I really _don't_ recommend following my scheme of things, I just 
offer it as an example of Debian's flexibility. I can wholeheartedly 
recommend Agnula, however, if that's what you want. They also do a RedHat 
version, called oddly enough, ReHMuDi.

If you decide you don't like Debian, and let's face it, plenty of ordinary, 
otherwise logical people don't, then you have plently of choice. Recent 
versions of Mandrake and SuSE carry a good range of audio apps. People have 
built audio systems successfully with Slackware and Gentoo, I believe. I 
don't entirely understand why you'd want to look any further than mdk-9.2 if 
that's what you're already using, perhaps I missed something here?

HTH

tim hall