Since I use openoffice.org for all my business documents, and renoise has recently made the migration to the platform, I decided to give Ubuntu a go after reading bits and pieces of other peoples experiences on these forums (that and the fact that I was about to do a windows re-installation anyhow, so it seemed to make sense to do it then and there with a clean/fresh dualboot setup)
First off, I’m amazed at how much more it does out of the box than XP; everything except the ATI drivers are installed automatically, and only because they are an option (although I’m getting a message when I open renoise that it failed to create a realtime ALSA thread, not quite sure how to resolve that yet)
I’m completely new to linux other than trying to install an old redhat distro with my father (and not quite getting the results we desired) when I was about 10… I can straight away see and appreciate the amount of effort that has gone into making it accessible to mainstream users and newbies such as myself, and I have to say I can finally see what all the fuss is about.
Having an above average competency with windows some of the file system differences and the whole can of worms with the terminal is a little bit strange to me still after about a week of meddling, but I’m finding answers to almost every question I have with minimal googling effort. The main problem I have at the moment is getting a bearing on what questions I actually need to be asking.
Anyway, just a ramble about my surprise, verging on excitement, with my discovery that linux is getting much closer to being mainstream friendly than I had thought… oh yeah and if anyone has any tips on what I should be googling for to get my ALSA drivers running in realtime as renoise is complaining about I’m all ears. PC specs in signature…
hehe, I was halfway down that page when I decided to post, I felt a surge of impulse to say how I impressed I was with linux to the people that inspired me to use it while I was reading their FAQ
edit:
Oh yes, and that worked brilliantly too. I spent a few days trying to track down answers about how to get my sound card installed exactly how I needed it for renoise, when all I needed to do was read the normal renoise installation notes. Many thanks to whoever wrote the guide
edit 2:
holy friggin crap!
I can run stuff at 96k 16 samples in linux
That settles it. I never use vst stuff anymore since I bought an analog synth. I’m only using windows for games from now on unless someone gives me a really good reason.
edit 3:
Is it just because I’m excited about getting everything working, or does linux utilise the normal (ie typing) keyboard inputs of notes much more accurately than in windows? seems I can press three things at once and they all press and release without a problem. Is this a side effect of my newfound low latency? (minimum 64 samples when under windows)
Yeah i did somewhat of a mad Linux mission a few weeks ago
Over 40 different distros i tried
By the end the strange thing i realised was the one i was gonna keep was the least mainstream and when i kept it i completely redesigned the way it looked and replaced the apps and stuff it used like the taskbar and so on
Within a day i was very happy using the terminal and removing and replacing parts of the OS (First time user too hehe)
Now i have my own flavour pretty much and i am very very happy with it
sounds like you found your footing a little easier than me; I’ve not delved far into terminal yet, not sure what are the common commands and what they do etc, I’m sure a bit of reading (along with a few problems to solve to jump start my motivation hehe) will get me further with that. For now, I just wanted to try it out, and I liked the ease of use of Ubuntu straight away, so it’s all I’ve looked at and I’m already satisfied. Maybe blissful ignorance, time will tell… after all I’m doing this to try and learn stuff
Don’t get me wrong, I’m perfectly comfortable with the idea of a terminal editor; I was raised on DOS for years and years and years of childhood gaming and BASIC programming and logo; I was fortunate enough to have a tech-head father who wanted to pass on his knowledge… but linux is a total rewire for me
Always check MAN or help or whatever with the commands, and read up on them as some can alter your system completely
** just realized I should put a disclaimer or something in this post.
I made the switch to linux some while ago, too. As Youtube seriously sucked with linux I wrote a tutorial about how to get flash-video smooth running on linux.
Considering especially Renoise I was astonished how smooth everything worked out of the box. Currently I am trying to setup a VM to run my VST-stuff in. I try to create a midi-vm-connection.
If I manage to do this, I will let you guys know first
I’m fine with Windows and see no need for a dual boot config personally. Thanks to LInux though, i’m still able to use my old scanner under Windows 7. It’s running in Suns Virtual Box just fine and the scanner worked out of the box, when routing the unknown USB device to the VM… saved me some cash.
I moved all onto Ubuntu recently and the latency’s I’m getting with Jack are nice and low. Jamming was always a bit dodgy on my laptop under XP (-but then again I am a jammy dodger)
How great is Jack!? I love it.
The real kicker so far has been ALSA Modular synth , which rocks my socks off, without a doubt the best analogue emulator I have come across and a pleasure to use once you get your jack patch and template song together.
Also beginning to get my face into Pure Data- should be kicking out reasonable sounds within the month.
Once I get a VST path set up me and ubuntu and renoise and ardour are all gonna get married!
Ladspa plugins have a couple o gems too.
, which rocks my socks off, without a doubt the best analogue emulator I have come across and a pleasure to use once you get your jack patch and template song together.
