this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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So, I have only ever known Windows, but am becoming more and more Linux curious. I see all these different distros you guys talk about and I have to ask, do all the distros run any of the available software or would I have to try to try to find one that will run what I'm interested in running? If so which distro will run the available music production software? I'm sick of microshaft. Help a brother out?
Welcome to the Linux community!
There's a certain set of us Linux users who cling to the adage "for beginners, distro doesn't matter much." A lot of the differences between distros are things under the hood that you won't notice or care about. The main two things that will change your experience are the DE and the package manager.
DE = Desktop Environment. The GUI, what it looks and feels like. This is a matter of personal taste, you can find DEs that look and work more like Windows, more like MacOS, or neither. Try out a few, pick which one you want. I like Cinnamon because they tend to put things where someone who's used to Windows, but doesn't really like Windows, would look for things. Again your choice of DE is personal taste.
Package manager = app store. Think about smart phones, a major deciding factor is which app store(s) it has access to. My Samsung Galaxy has both the Google Play and Samsung Galaxy stores. If you buy a Pixel, you don't get the Samsung store. If you buy an iPhone, you're stuck with Apple's App Store. Go back to what? 2014 or so and buy a Fire Phone, you're stuck with Amazon's app store. Same thing with Linux distros.
In practice, most mainstream distros will support practically all Linux software in some way. I run Linux Mint, Mint comes with APT and Flatpak, and between the two I can find all the software I want. (Asterisk: video games, for which I have Steam). Other distros will have technically different but functionally similar package managers; on Arch you'd use Pacman, on Fedora you'd use RPM. The Steam Deck uses only Flatpak for user apps.
So go with a fairly mainstream distro that has Flatpak support either out of the box or easily installed and you'll be okay.
Thank you. That's some real, usable information. You and the others who have replied have really been great. In the past I've encountered so much elitism and dismissiveness when I have tried to wind myself up for the switch. It's nice to find some inclusive helpful folks for a change.
Glad to be of help. I hope you have a good time with Linux.
A recommendation to help you get over that "gee which of several thousand distros to pick: pick out no more than four distros that each have different DEs, and run them each in virtualbox for a little while on your Windows machine. Just look around and see which you prefer.
Will do
Search https://repology.org/ for the software you're trying to run.
If it's windows only, search for an alternative on https://alternativeto.net
If there's no alternative, check if it runs in wine https://appdb.winehq.org/
But honestly, I'd stick to the first two. I've been on linux for more than a decade now and do not miss a single application that runs on windows.
So my intuition and guesses from what I've heard is that Fedora might be the best for you.
Here are some links:
https://labs.fedoraproject.org/jam/ https://linuxmusicians.com/ https://archive.ph/hYxrO
Not sure if oudated:
https://jfearn.fedorapeople.org/fdocs/en-US/Fedora_Draft_Documentation/0.1/html/Musicians_Guide/index.html
https://fedoramagazine.org/configure-fedora-to-practise-and-compose-music/
If you want to use NixOS, the one I recommend elsewhere, I'm not sure what your experience will be whether good or bad. Probably more fiddling, but more flexible/stable in the long run.
Here is a matrix room if you are interested in asking more knowledgable people about that path:
https://app.element.io/#/room/#audio:nixos.org
Writing music and making files for my 3d printer is most of what I do with a computer anymore. What I'm not trying to do is make a separate hobby of OS trialing. I'm worried I won't be able to find drivers for my audio interface, hell I'm running it on an old Win7 driver in Win10 now. Payday is Friday, and I will be ordering a second SSD to quarantine this experiment on. For now I read and pester random folks on the Internet for opinions. I appreciate your suggestions, for sure.
What you need to do is install Oracle Virtual box on your pc.
Then download a Linux distribution: I'd recommend Linux Mint
Install it virtually on Virtualbox.
Then connect your audio equipment to the pc and in Virtualbox use the menu to send that device from Windows to Linux.
Look for the menu called devices or something like that. It will just the various inputs it sees eg. Usb, SCSI, aux etc and you can select that and then select the attached device. That will send the device signal to Linux.
Then see if you can see the device in Linux.
If not research whether you need a driver or a particular application. The best place to ask about drivers is from the device manufacturer. If they don't exist anymore then Google it. Eg Linux driver for [device name] or Ubuntu driver for [device name]
If you can get it to work then you're set and you can install Linux as your main OS. or just use it in the VM. If there are no drivers and it doesn't work, stay on Windows.
Just be aware it's the device manufacturer that should make the driver, whether for Windows or Linux. Sometimes the Linux community will make their own driver if the OEM doesn't. I haven't seen that happen on Windows. On Windows if the OEM doesn't make one, you either use an old one or get a new audio device 🤷
I'm not as familiar with music/audio production, but I've done a lot of 3D printing from a Linux system.
For slicing, you're spoiled for choice. The only one I'm aware of that doesn't at least try to support Linux is Formlabs; Slic3r, Cura, PrusaSlicer, even Simplify3D offer Linux versions.
For modeling, Blender runs well on Linux if you're of that persuasion. For engineering CAD, pretty much the only first-class citizen is FreeCAD, which is powerful if a bit of a pain in the ass. You can also use OnShape because it's browser-based, but they're trying to be Solidworks especially in price. I have seen Fusion360 in Ubuntu's Snap store, but haven't tried to use it.
I run blender and cura, so it sounds like I'm covered there and that's encouraging.
That's what I mean with distrobox. You decide to run distribution A. Later you realize a package(program) is not available in A but in distribution B. So you run distrobox and have B on top of A. And access to all the packages.
Interesting. Sounds like i have yet another thing to read up on.
Most distros are almost exactly the same, NixOS and Guix are a bit different but if you get Ubuntu or Fedora or PopOS or something they all work fine.
That's encouraging