[LAU] A sound decision

[Philipp]

Excerpts from Stephen Stubbs's message of 2010-03-17 02:23:56 +0100:
> From: A. C. Censi <accensi at gmail.com>
> Sent: Tue, February 9, 2010 2:26:36 PM
> 
> http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/36698-from-windows-to-linux-a-sound-decision
> From Windows to Linux: a sound decision
> Beasley's set-up:
> Arch Linux system custom 2.6.31,6-rt19 kernel with RT preemption
> ============================
> 
> Thanks for posting this article.  It's allowed me to start using Jack and Rosegarden again.
> 
> Last November 20th or so (it's why I went totally silent, Oleg), an update came down from Fedora 11 (I was also using Planet CCRMA repositories for audio).  I only use the stable repositories and I consequently trust all updates that come down from either Fedora or Planet CCRMA.
> 
> That trust appears to have been misplaced.
> 
> For no readily apparent reason, I couldn't start Jack anymore.  Time was extremely short for me.  I tried the suggested fixes in the Jack error log output, but it didn't solve the problem.  I next tried Fedore 12 and must have gotten the same update, since Jack wouldn't start with the same error messages as I got under Fedora 11.  I've gone from then until Sunday, March 14th, without Jack, Ardour, and Rosegarden.
> 
> On Sunday I installed Arch Linux.  No problems, except for searching the Wiki Forum to find out the port number needed to get my network printer server recognized so I could print under Arch Linux.  I got that fixed yesterday.
> 
> I'm now running:
> 
> without PulseAudio (oh what joy!)
> 
> ALSA version 1.0.22, release 1 (if I've read that correctly from the PKGBUILD script)
> 
> Jack version 0.116.2, release 1
> qJackCtl version 0.3.6, release 1
> 
> Ardour version 2.8.7, release 1
> 
> Rosegarden version 10.02, release 1
> 
> Audacity version 1.3.11beta, release 1
> 
> The other thing I like about Arch Linux is that it doesn't automatically check for updates, and it doesn't try to push updates on you.  Now that I have a system running the way I want, I can leave this system as is for the next 10 years if I wish and there won't be any broken programs due to buggy updates.  Oh what joy, again!
> 
> For What It's Worth,
> Stephen.
> 
I'm very glad Arch Linux works well for you, but I do have a word of
warning: If you plan to update Arch Linux in ten years you're likely to
run into lots of issues ;)
It really is designed for quite frequent updates, but if you're
selective and know what you're doing you should be fine for a while.

The point is that you're in control, you have to decide. Most of the
time the decisions are easy, but if you stick with a version of a
certain program and you need to re-compile the app because one of the
underlying libs had a so-name bump, then you could run into issues.

It's all about what you choose to do. And with passing time the required
effort might grow.

That all may sound a bit negative but I'm a very happy Arch user as well
and I'm very glad that it works out for you.

Regards,
Philipp