Wholly recommended if there aren’t many Windows-only programmes or plugs that you cannot live without. My studio is just a normal Acer laptop from like 2013 or something and since switching to Linux I get amazing performance from it.
In the past when I tried setting up a Linux machine for audio, it was always such hard work however this time around it was just a case of;
Make a Lubuntu live USB → install on whole drive (no dual-boot) → add Ubuntu Studio packages and repos → think I added KXStudio repos too
And everything works really well out of the box without much config, from audio with ALSA or JACK to things like wireless printing.
@novemberist@antismap Was setting up Pipewire difficult? Do you see any benefits in performance or efficiency or latency etc? I’ve been thinking of giving it a go but haven’t bothered yet because I don’t have any real need for it.
I didn’t set anything up, it was pre-configured by fedora. My advice is that if jack works for you currently then perfect, don’t bother fixing something that works.
@BriocheBaps I’d still recommend it even though I’ve had some trouble. The only thing issues I’ve had have been with Renoise, all other programs have run perfectly fine so far. You do have to be comfortable opening up the terminal and digging through technical docs to figure some things out, like inverted scroll on a laptop. But overall I’ve enjoyed the transition and it’s made an old 2013 macbook pro workable again (the latest macOS update tanked performance).
@willy_dinglefinger I tried installing the KXStudio repos and they didn’t work for me, but I think the issue is at the firmware level on my old macbook. Eventually I want to try exactly what you’re saying and wholly replace an old acer/asus laptop with a dedicated music distro.
@nick thanks for the response. I’ve recently built a PC, Ryzen 5700g, 32GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, 512 m.2 NVME drive and I bought Windows 10 Pro (cheap off a keys website). “Upgraded” to W11. 5GB RAM at idle with most programs deactivated at startup. Components that can’t be removed, loads of data harvesting going on and a UI I’m not thrilled with. It feels frustrating to me that I’ve paid for the OS and it’s limiting me.
There are a few things I need to research related to non music making computer use. My phone is old and will be finally upgrading in summer, no androids come with SD card slots it feels like and I need a load of local phone storage for my lossless music collection - so I’ll probably go 512GB iPhone, just need to see if Linux can sync music to the iPhone - either running iTunes under Wine (is it Wine?) Or some sort of software that will sync media to iPhone. Also need a good CD ripper and library/playback manager.
I might partition my main drive, set up Linux until I can swap over then wipe W11. I find the idea of controlling everything on a granular level appealing. I already use stuff I know will work on Linux - Renoise, Redux, Reaper, Audaxity and Surge XT. Native FX are good for me. I already use Libre Open Office. Would love to get up a mail server so I can bin Google and Outlook accounts.
Sorry this is probably not interesting to anyone else lol. Just typing out my thoughts, helps me order them.
No, I get it. I thought more or less the same thing after macOS Catalina. I’ve switched over to Mint full time since December and I do like it a lot better. It does have it’s quirks (sleep/hibernate can be wonky, same with resolution scaling) but any issue I have is a solvable problem as opposed to a new non-optional mandate from Apple or Microsoft.
To go off on a bit of a tangent, and only speaking from personal experience, a refurbished phone might also be worth considering…?
I had to get a new phone recently and wanted something with an SD card slot and a 3.5 headphone jack so got a refurbished Samsung for like £144 off of Back Market (UK).
If I had 500 € handy I’d get me a Fair Phone but I can’t justify spending that money on myself at the mo so aye I settled for a refurb and it was a good decision. It’s like new and the battery is all right too though in a year or so I’ll probably cut it open and put a new battery in.
Sorry for the tangent…! Just thought it might be worth a thought.