Hi folks, I have been using Linux for about 2 years now. Started with MDK 8.0 and have mostly stuck with them. Using 9.2 now.I'm not a command line expert at any measure. In fact, if not for the vast improvements in the GUI I would not have the time to get anywhere with linux. I started awhile ago hunting around for audio apps spured by Austin Acton's "Mandrake 9.1 Audio workstation how to" advertised in the Mandrake emails. I figured out how to setup URPMI and found apps like Jack, Ardour (Since, like 8 releases ago) Rosegarden, Fluidsynth and a vast surprising variety of other cool audio stuff. I thank "Thac" for his efforts on the "Thac's RPMS" pages as he keeps the Mandrake packages for the audio stuff up to current release more than any other repository I've found.(I never seem to have much success at building from source). Anyway, my biggest headache is getting my laptop fine tuned to work at it's best with Linux Audio under Mandrake. I have used Win XP and Cakewalk Sonar since its release and I get fairly solid performance out of it. I use it live for it's midi playback capabilities. (Save midis to Sonar format maintaining mix, edit data easily, etc.) I would one day like to use Linux instead but "Live" is where the rubber meets the road! Cant afford to have crashes and glitches in the middle of a show. I also use Sonar for recording. As promising as Ardour is, I just dont have the time to figure out everything. Sorry if that seems non contributing but it's just the way it is. I can promise that when it is sorted, I WILL pay/contribute financially to have it, if it meets my needs. Sure would like to see the inbuilt midi capabilities in it. But I know the focus is on the general recording and editing side and thats cool. Must be a lot of work! I want to try using a spare laptop for live fx processing (Over vocals on a PA)at this point. Some of the LADSPA plugs seem very cool (Gverb for one) and I can get Jack-realtime working but dont know if it's working as good as it could. I have been messing with Ecamegapedal with Jack. So heres my stuff: Dell CPxJ 650mhz, 256megs Ram, 20 gigHD (5400RPM I think) I installed Andrew Mortens(??) Multimedia kernel RPM and it boots fine...although I dont know where the scheduling is sitting or if it is even making a difference. The Dell Latitude has a Maestro3 PCI audio accelerator chip. (Not real high end I know but works sufficiently well with Sonar XL) If I set Jack parameters in Qjackctl any lower than 1024 I get Xrun mayhem. (at 44100) I have also tried this running from consoles as root and it does not seem to make much difference. Am I expecting too much? Anyway, sorry for such a long post but I was told in the Ardour users list that this was where I should ask all this stuff... I do luv linux (it's kinda addictive) and would like to completely sever the umbilical from Bill someday. :) thanks for any help in advance.