16 Mar
2011
16 Mar
'11
2:12 p.m.
Leigh Dyer wrote:
You need to take a step back, learn the OS, and learn some of the
tools before you can step forward again and start making music. If you
don't have the time to do that (and it's certainly no mark against you
if you don't -- it's a big investment), then you might as well move on
now.
Hi Baz,
And with Leigh's note I'll jump and suggest you simply move on. It's
obvious you've made a game attempt at working with Linux, and you have
my respect for that. But at my age I don't have the patience either, so
I sincerely suggest you use what gets your work done most efficiently.
I'm sorry Linux audio isn't working out for you - unfortunately that's
an all too-common experience, and I certainly don't blame the interested
user. The plain fact is, as your experience tells, that there is no
perfect Linux audio distro. OTOH, Windows, for its users, is just that -
a perfect audio distro. You don't try umpteen of them to find which one
works, you don't have to compile anything, and all your apps have a
single dedicated distribution target. Sweet. I don't need to rehearse the
Microsoft negatives here - I'm sure you've already found some, which I
assume was at least one motivating factor for your Linux trials - but
unfortunately you've also discovered a bunch of the negative aspects of
the Linux audio world.
I can't stress enough how much it matters to me that I get my work done.
At 60 I'm feeling the pinch of years, and I have no time to muck around
with excursions into another operating system. Had I the time and
inclination I'd prep a Windows box for the fun of it, but I have no
need. I'm getting my work done with Linux. I currently run two distros
under normal use here - the ancient, super-stable and increasingly
irritating 64 Studio 2.1 and a more modern Ubuntu 10.04 - and I
occasionally run AVLinux, which is the distro I now recommend to beginners.
Perhaps a best idea would be for you - assuming you're still interested
in all this stuff - to set up a "sandbox" machine or a drive partition
for your Linux ventures. Take a more leisurely path, learn more about
the system itself, and maybe you'll end up using Linux for something
anyway. Whatever you decide, feel free to ask more questions here and
elsewheres in the general community. We'll be glad to help as we're able.
Good luck,
dp
Some examples of my music made with Linux audio software:
http://linux-sound.org/ardour-music.html