LINUX yes or no ?

[mozartella]

it's me again,
that time, who knows if and witch LINUX is good and not too difficult to learn? the SUSE or others setup?

Also, what kind of stable and free softwares we can really use for music purpose?

and for drivers? does Linux have enough drivers with hardwares?

Also, what is a Windows emulation? and it's working?

thanks for all pertinent responses

[Lorenzo]

I tried linux before to buy a mac and I have to say that it's not a good OS for audio purpose. Probably in the future it will become a great OS for everything but I'll wait a little...
regards, Lorenzo

[RicFreak]

Well,
many Linux versions are stable, but there's not so many music softwares available.

Things are the same with drivers, but you have to know that companies are not so fast in drivers development for Linux, so you'll probably have to wait

Windows emulation is simply a software that will emulate windows under linux: you are running linux, but you can run windows programs in this "emulated" task. Is it working... well, answer is yes for most of the times, but sometime things may go wrong and, as you may imagine, debugging is much more difficult.

While emulators are good for "temporary" purposes, I won't use Linux if I plan to use windows programs only (or mainly).

While Microsoft is about to release its multi operating system environment, there are products (VmWare is one of them, very good) able to run multiple OS on the same machine, so you can choose to work with Linux or Windows as you like.

[mozartella]

Laurenzo and Rickfreak,

thanks boths of you for your honest popint of view, and, as you say, I would probably wait a little longer.

Myself, once had bought a very nice sound card and it was with 8 IN and 8 out for wave purpose, then, the USA company went banckrup, and It's a shame, the DRIVERS, of course do not follows anymore.

Do you know if any kind of driver could be, in a way GENERIC, and work on others hardwares?

I must be crazy to dream.

Anyway, is LINUX hard to learn ? if you had a touch with DOS years ago?

[Lorenzo]

about your last question: linux is difficult if you try to enter deeply in the OS like any other OS: Have you tried to mess up with windows registry or system files? Windows become more complicate if you try it!
the same is for a linux, I used Mandrake (only in grafical environment) and I have to say that is simple as Windows.
regards, Lorenzo
p.s. what audio card are you refering to?

[chris]

I've been using Windows for times... and I'm currently working within an worldwide IT reseller.

I have to say that Linux is very interesting (much more than Windows) because many new softwares that are released support this compatibility and in terms of apps, you have also the Star Office that is available for Linux.

Linux is now growing in terms of market shares because it's not expensive (but unfortunately being not free) and some computer constructors now have the Linux O.S. preloaded.

Try also to have a look at the Mandrake versions for Linux.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Chris

[laserbeak]

http://sound.condorow.net/

linux is great. you just have to be patient and willing to experinment. there's a great linux community out there.

i'm planning on making the full plunge one day, unless i end up making my own OS

[RiotNrrd]

I've been using MEPIS Linux for the last year and a half for my everyday computing needs, and I couldn't be happier with it. But, yeah, I still can't use it for music - Reason, Live, Reaktor, Absynth, etc., don't run on it (and while I haven't tried running them under Wine, I'm pretty sure it'd be a bust). So I have a special Windows computer dedicated to sound, and my Linux computer that I use for absolutely everything else.

[roadster_32]

it's me again,
that time, who knows if and witch LINUX is good and not too difficult to learn? the SUSE or others setup?

Also, what kind of stable and free softwares we can really use for music purpose?

and for drivers? does Linux have enough drivers with hardwares?

Also, what is a Windows emulation? and it's working?

thanks for all pertinent responses

As people have mentioned there aren't many hardware drivers available for Linux OS but if you would like to try linux I would suggest trying KNOPPIX, which is a bootable version of linux OS and has a full graphical interface like windows, what happens is you download KNOPPIX and then burn it on a CD you do not have to install anything you can just boot the linux from the CD, and when you remove the CD then you can get windows aswell, that way you can have the best parts of both OS'!

[XVampireX]

Linux has got a pretty good support for drivers. If you take just a few minutes to research you'll find that most of the hardware that you're using, even the midi and sound card are probably in a way supported.

But regarding software, while it has some good applications which are even free of charge and also free as libre (freedom), you shouldn't really deal with it unless you want to start learning a whole new system at the moment. There are even some great DAW's like Ardour and Rosegarden, and some nice multitrack editors but it's still mostly for the amateur and not professional market...

I'm also a linux user but I couldn't find something that I really like in terms of DAWs or even VST support, although there's an article now that says there's a new really nice format for VST stuff called LV2.

If you're really interested you might want to look here, it's a nice link: http://linux-sound.org/

Anyway, have fun

[Teh Mick]

I'm a Linux user for many many years. I'm also a KDE developer even if I am not acctive these days. Linux a good platform for the desktop, no matter which desktop.

But for DAW, I prefer using a Mac. I have both Mac and Linux on my laptop and using DP, Reason and getting access to most VST, AU is great. The MIDI latency is near zero. I have tried to use Linux based DAW but I found no one that fit my taste.

[OmarNoori]

i use ubuntu its free u can download it or get sent to your house for free