[linux-audio-user] Looking for a distro strategy

[Mark Knecht]

> So, anyway, how are you guys handling these issues?  Do you install
> from scratch?  Do you install audio on top of an existing distro?
> Which one?  RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, Gentoo, etc?  Does Planet
> CCRMA work well for you?  What about Agnula?  How do you upgrade
> individual packages?  How do you back out the upgrade if there's a
> problem?  Do you manage a separate "test" environment to keep from
> bringing down your DAW?

The PlanetCCRMA flow works very well for me on my slower 500MHz box.
Fernando's adoption of apt to handle all the dependencies and the fact that
he creates the binary distribution for us works very well for me on this
machine. Frankly, without Fernando I think I wouldn't be using Redhat
anymore.

On my faster 2.6GHz box I'm using Gentoo. Obviously this requires a faster
box since you're building all of the code on your machine, but it has been
the most stable distribution I've used so far. emerge again handles all the
dependencies which saves me a lot of time, so as long as I stay with the
'stable' flow for most things like Mozilla, Evolution, etc. then all of the
necessary stuff has been very stable. What I like about Gentoo vs. Redhat is
that most everyone's straight CVS code builds without having to modify
anything. Under Redhat you have to fiddle with configure options sometimes.

FYI - I wouldn't call my use of Linux a 'DAW' anymore. I tried. It didn't
work, mostly because of my sound card choice. Linux audio now plays an
important support role in my work, providing interesting soft synths and
audio processing programs. My DAW is still Windows Pro Tool s and likely
will be for a long time to come. (Upgrading hardware this week. Too much
money!) However I do all email on Linux, most of my browsing, and once in a
while even a bit of gaming. Yesterday I installed a DVD-/+RW drive and got
xine working. Now I'm movie capable too. All this keeps my fragile Windows
XP environment much cleaner and working better.

Cheers,
Mark