[LAU] Debian DAW experiences

[Charles Z Henry]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2014 at 1:47 AM, Atte <atte at youmail.dk> wrote:
> On 09/01/2014 07:42 AM, David Christensen wrote:
>> linux-audio-user:
>>
>> I've been running a Debian Wheezy DAW (i386, Xfce, realtime kernel,
>> Audacity, Rosegarden, various synthesizers, etc.) for the past week or
>> two.  It sort of worked.  But, it's clearly not ready for taking on
>> stage for a performance.
>
> Say what?
>
> I've been running debian stable for ages (brief detours to arch and
> ubuntu), and I just love it for the stability. What I *don't* want is an
> update to break the system a day (or even weeks) before a gig. Yes, you
> might have to compile some stuff yourself, to get bleed on some
> software, but in my experience that boils down to about a handful of
> packages.
>
> YMMV
>
> --
> Atte

That's exactly what my mileage does.  If you're working with hardware
that's 2+ years old, you can install a fine, lean system with debian
stable and build the bleeding edge stuff you need.  I've not tried
arch--at the moment, I installed ubuntu on a new laptop, since the
new-ness of the hardware called for newer OS software than I could get
from debian stable.  After a while, I'll discontinue my ubuntu
installation, inventory the important updates and proprietary software
I need and rebuild the system with debian.

If you're building a DAW and running, say openbox/xfce... there's
about 99% of system updates you don't care about.  Just get a good set
of consistent packages installed and wait until you reach some
specific bug or limitation that you need to fix.  Of course, I don't
speak for everyone--depending on what kind of development work you do,
bleeding edge OS updates may be necessary.

Chuck