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I put Ubuntu on my Thinkpad this weekend. Anyone tried this linux distro? It feels almost Mac-like (yeah, I know that's backwards) to this XP user.
Linux has come a long say since I last tried it in 2000. In fact, I think I could ditch XP altogether for non-music purposes. Still some snags, like learning the file structure, but I figure it's learnable for a near-noob.
Anybody here making music with Linux?
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09/18/06
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Zanf
seanh makes music on linux.
I dont do any of my day to day stuff on windoze any more. Everything is on Fedora 5. I tried Ubuntu several times but I couldnt sit with it well and found FC5 to be more to my liking. Now I know where stuff is [the file structure, etc] and Im not so overwhelmed by config'ing stuff either - in fact, sometimes its a bit of a buzz.
I would suggest reading a book called "Think Unix" by Jon Lasser to get into the *nix mindset. Helped me a fair bit. And have someone handy on IM that you can hassle anytime you need to because they work from home so are available most times ;)
09/18/06
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mrpanda
Ditto to what Zanf said. The majority of my everyday computing is done with Slackware 10.2 and I love it for that.
For music production though, Linux seems for work best for those who can afford hardware. I've had relatively good success with LMMS, but it's still not up to par with what i'm used to. If you like trackers, I highly recommend Schism tracker. There's also hydrogen, rosegarden, audacity, ardour, among dozens of other apps. Audio production on Linux is slowly getting better, but for the time being, i've been reluctantly using an old windows machine to write my music on. I just can't seem to find something that really stands out that I could use all the time, except maybe audacity.
Also, the Linux filesystem is pretty easy to understand. You have / which is your root directory, then /home where user files are stored. /etc is for configuration files. /usr/bin is where all your executables go. /mnt is where you mount removable media like cd's and floppies. /dev contains device locations. It seems a little bit much to take in at first, but you'll catch on quick, and you'll soon realize why having a filesystem like that is more practical and efficient than drive letters.
In the meantime, I recommend link as a wonderful resource. Also, man pages are your best friend so don't forget about them. If you need a hard copy reference, you should check out "Running Linux" and/or "Linux in a nutshell" from O'Reilly Media.
Good luck. Have fun.
09/18/06
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oxymoron
Thanks for the info!
I think I'll keep at it for "real life" and maintain an XP machine for VST-related work. I'll check out other distributions as well, but I was impressed how everything in my T41 (including WiFi) just worked with no hassles.
09/19/06
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mrpanda
Forgot to mention this, but would like to point it out. Should you go looking for linux audio apps, you'll be hard pressed to find a single standalone app that does everything you're looking for, but if you use jack link you can pipe midi data from one piece of software to the other. It's can be a little disorienting, but I think that's the route most people seem to go. I'm still sort of figuring it all out myself, but there you go.
09/20/06
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oxymoron
Thanks mrpanda! jack looks very interesting and worth exploring.
BTW, also tried ubuntu on my music laptop, a Dell Inspiron 6000. If anything it ran even better than on the Thinkpad. I thought the integrated video might slow it down, but if anything it is snappier than the T41's dedicated Radeon. Perhaps the Radeon drivers aren't optimized. Also, BTW, software installation is a breeze after configuring the synaptic package manager. Audacity installed with no probs (though it's still the ugliest audio GUI I've ever seen, even more so than Reaper...sorry for slagging free software...)
10/20/06
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lunatinker
sidenote: i wonder which linux distro is best for server/host....
i have completely no idea. i guess red hat is okee dokee...
10/20/06
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jogn
Actually you should try freebsd for the server thing. Though essentially it's all the same.
12/22/07
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tunalicker
i am playing around with ubuntu studio. also, USING the XMMS player for streaming radio.
if you use 'nix, look up TUNAPIE. after installing streamripper, this lists all the shoutcast stations.
all available through (ubuntu persons) synaptic app manager deal  ;)
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