Linux...anybody using it?

[jeffh]

The way new python projects keep popping up, it will be a nice
extra feather in your resume'. Must be an ace of a language.
One can't have too of them, these days!
Cheers

You really hit the nail on the head with that one, ROFL... The only reason I went with Python was to impress a particular behemoth of a tech company I've been courting...

but Python is a beast of a language, I would recommend it to anybody... Between C and Python, you can do literally anything, using the C for code that requires maximum performance, and Python for rapid and easy development of everything else... Python also "just works", and doesn't have all of the goofy quirks that Perl and PHP have...

[Crackbaby]

I love your ambition! Please continue to write about it .. and your daw Im one of those who never ventured into the land of Linux (which would be Finland .. and i HAVE been there several times ). Im not against of trying linux+daw but i currently it's a big step from abandoning my current daw, plugins and workflow. But im interested for sure .. then again, im interested in everything, but that's beside the point

More screenshots please! I think i only saw three* of them on the website

*edit: now i saw there's five of them .. somewhat settled

[dune_rave]

I wonder if there are users whoc hanged windows to linux...
I know i wont quit using windows, because all my stuff works here and i don't want to build the whole shit up on another op.system.

[jeffh]

I love your ambition! Please continue to write about it .. and your daw

Will do

Im not against of trying linux+daw but i currently it's a big step from abandoning my current daw, plugins and workflow. But im interested for sure .. then again, im interested in everything, but that's beside the point

I've made it super easy to try it out with very little effort... If you have a spare flash drive or a DVD-R laying around, you can create a bootable flash drive or DVD that can boot into a full Linux install with PyDAW and without installing Linux on your PC. Pretty cool, huh?

You just need the .iso image from this page:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/libmods ... /pydaw_os/

and the instructions here:

http://pydaw.org/wiki/index.php?title=PyDAW_OS

Then just insert the DVD or flash drive(whichever you chose), turn the PC off, turn it back on, interrupt start up (it's usually done by pressing either F12, Del, Esc or Enter at the first screen), and select the DVD or flash drive(whichever you chose) as the boot device, and the PC will boot up into an in-memory Linux install with PyDAW waiting for you on the desktop, and, it probably already has your soundcard drivers installed.

And, to re-iterate, Linux won't be installed on any of your hard drives to do this, and you can use the same flash drive or DVD to boot up pretty much any other PC you happen to be standing near, hence I keep make a big deal about the PyDAW studio-on-a-stick that you can take with you anywhere and run on most any PC...

More screenshots please! I think i only saw three* of them on the website

*edit: now i saw there's five of them .. somewhat settled

Yeah, I think the 5 or 6 that are available are pretty representative, and everything else can't be done justice with a screenshot, you'd need a video...

[jeffh]

I wonder if there are users whoc hanged windows to linux...
I know i wont quit using windows, because all my stuff works here and i don't want to build the whole shit up on another op.system.

That goes right back to my previous point about Cubase clones. If I was making yet another DAW that for all intended purposes worked the same as Cubase and it's ilk, then it would be a difficult sell for users to switch platforms to get something that *hopefully* is just as good.

However, I'm not creating another Cubase clone, I'm creating a DAW that revolutionizes the DAW experience, that they can't get anywhere else. If I can convince Windows users that they can obtain a top quality sound from PyDAW, with less effort, an easier workflow in the most stable DAW on the market, then they'd be foolish not to switch and gain that competitive advantage, especially in light of the fact that I've made it so easy just to try it on a flash drive or DVD without committing to installing Linux on your hard drive...

Granted, there are trade-offs in PyDAW's design. I truly believe it's quickly becoming a revolutionary tool for producing house, trance, dubstep, techno, etc... but admittedly it isn't very compelling vs. the competition for people recording bands, and some other use cases. But that was the original intent, rather than trying to be "jack of all trades, master of none", PyDAW was always meant to be a better tool for electronic music than Cubase, Reaper, etc... but at the expense of not being as versatile or robust for people who use a lot of audio, and little to no MIDI... Although I intend to continue improving PyDAW's ability to be used for recording/sequencing bands, I'm never going to compromise the MIDI-centric workflow features for the sake of enhancing the audio-centric workflow.

[glokraw]

Windoze8 isn't doing many favors, I see about a 10 to 1 hate to love
ratio in my wanderings, if you can get arm and android in the python
stranglehold, there will be a flood of tablets and alert phones to
develope for. International karaoke sung into alert phones,
while pydaw plays a midi backing track?
Competitions heard/judged live on facebook/twitter?
...never know what the new day brings...

[jeffh]

Windoze8 isn't doing many favors, I see about a 10 to 1 hate to love
ratio in my wanderings, if you can get arm and android in the python
stranglehold, there will be a flood of tablets and alert phones to
develope for. International karaoke sung into alert phones,
while pydaw plays a midi backing track?
Competitions heard/judged live on facebook/twitter?
...never know what the new day brings...

Exactly, Linux is the only viable platform where your USB pro audio soundcard could be used on an ARM device... I keep trying to find a Samsung ARM Cortex A15 Chromebook, but my local Best Buy is always sold out... but when I do eventually get one, I'm planning on creating packages for ARM, and possibly even an ARM port of PyDAW-OS, the barrage of CPU performance optimizations I made in PyDAW2 probably made it viable on ARM Cortex A15-based architectures,

I could even make cute little PyDAW appliances out of RaspberryPi style development boards, and sell them for somewhere between $150-$300 while having a decent profit margin... and they would be tiny, possibly even pocket-sized(but you'd need a monitor, keyboard, mouse, MIDI controller, etc... to plug into them, of course).

Android tablets are another possiblity, AFAIK Qt apps are capable of being run on Android without too much effort, but the only Android apps I've written are a couple of clock widgets in Java, I've never tried to compile a C application in Android or install a Python interpreter, so I don't yet know how much work that would be...

[glokraw]

Bitwig NAMM2013, concurrent linux, mac, win developement and testing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeH0i-M0tC0

[jeffh]

Bitwig NAMM2013, concurrent linux, mac, win developement and testing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeH0i-M0tC0

I don't know, Bitwig seems like vaporware(at least on Linux)... Supposedly there are a few beta users out there for Windows or Mac, but the word on the street is that they still haven't released a single Linux beta to anyone(but feel free to prove me wrong about that).

I was hoping there would be an actual sighting of the Linux beta in the video, but I think his response to the question said it all:

British guy: "Do you think that the Linux version will run faster because of not running atop a bloated P.O.S. like Windows?"

**thinly veiled German accent** "Nein, the Linux wersion will use just about the same CPU as the Windows 8 and Mac wersion. Unless of course it winds up using less because it doesn't have as much running in the background that you can't turn off"

Translation: There is no Linux "wersion", or at least not one that is in any usable state to show people, hence the developer can't even describe how well it's running vs. the other platforms...

[abstractcats]

Ok, what is the most recent version of Linx(free), for music/DAW, and can use Windows program? Thanks

[jeffh]

Ok, what is the most recent version of Linx(free), for music/DAW, and can use Windows program? Thanks

Windows programs like audio applications? Or did you mean something else?

The way to run Windows applications in Linux is with WINE, which is available from any version of Linux. However, WINE generally sucks for that purpose, there's almost zero chance that all of your plugins will work **well**.(but they might at least run)

Bitwig claims a Linux port is coming, but refuse to show it to anybody. Reaper claims Linux support through WINE, but it's even more of a joke than their OSX port, see this for a fine example of what Joe User's experience is with Reaper on WINE:

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=117332

So then there's the 2 big established Linux audio distributions, AV Linux and KX Studio. I have little insight into AV Linux because it uses an old Debian kernel that never was able to boot my PC (I upgrade every year, so newer hardware always). I think this is a fine example of the KX Studio experience, which I can back up with my own experiences:


http://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic ... 47&t=10594

To summarize: "I installed it, completely borked my system, but then after spending a week fixing it, and swapping out kernels 3 times, it's great.. and most of the applications even work sometimes..."

So, in my heavily biased opinion, if you're mostly using MIDI+plugins, I would recommend the incomparable PyDAW-OS here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/libmods ... /pydaw_os/

...and if you're not, then I'd recommend Ubuntu here:

http://ubuntu.com

..and if you need some MIDI, Qtractor or Muse2 as your DAW, or if you need no MIDI, Ardour2 as your DAW... However, don't look for them to do everything Cubase, Reaper or Ableton do, or nearly as well...

Also don't expect much in the way of stability unless you're **just** recording and sequencing audio(or otherwise have VERY basic needs).. Cubase and Ableton go through their unstable periods usually after a major release, but Ardour, Muse2 and Qtractor make even the worst X.0 release-day versions of Cubase look rock-solid...

[ret]

And I thought I was harsh...

About Bitwig. I think it is still too early to say it is vaporware but it is indeed worrying that no-one in the rather small linux audio circles know nothing about it.

[glokraw]

Things win/mac users considering linux should do,
after successfully treating ADD, and buying Reaper,
1. aquire hardware known to work in linux audio.
2. choose a linux version known to work with your motherboard
3. perform focussed internet searches using linux audio terminology
4. learn how to install and use wine, with default plugin/app paths
5. learn t0 use the software installers of your linux
6. watch youtube videos displaying working linux audio setups
7. don't practice and test on your only computer
8. don't do 'system updates' on a working system
9. test application updates in an auxillary system (usbstick/drive installs)
10. Press the record button, before playing
11. read, study, learn

This foreign concept of users getting educated in an OS,
applies to using windows, and 0S-ex, as well.
Gates/Jobs, their heirs, underlings, and promoters,
will not do your homework for you, and will happily charge you money
to rent the right to beta-test their software.

Enough intel/amd compatible plugins, both name-brand, and freeware legends,
work fine in linux-reaper, that sound variety is a non-issue.

The bitwig saga will be interesting, as europes economy implodes,
linux use might increase simply out of fiscal necessity. Having
cross-compiling as a foundation of a DAW startup, seems pretty sensible.

Cheers

[glokraw]

And I thought I was harsh...

About Bitwig. I think it is still too early to say it is vaporware but it is indeed worrying that no-one in the rather small linux audio circles know nothing about it.

All opinions and evidence are welcome. Accurate knowledge is like
good moonshine, it requires the raw materials, and the distillation.
Then thorough taste-testing

The small linux audio circles have their hands full
maintaining the distro wars, and gui camps
Outsiders are carefully screened,
especially if they have wine on their breath

[jeffh]

Things win/mac users considering linux should do,
after successfully treating ADD, and buying Reaper,
...

I agree with a lot of what you're saying, but for most users, it comes down to: do they care enough to do all of those things? Not all of them do.

If they do, then great... but from my experience switching to Linux with the intent of doing audio work is unlikely to end well (rather than just to be learning Linux). Ubuntu is great for people who just want to use Facebook, Google and Gmail, I've given Ubuntu to girlfriends and grandma alike, who are all satisfied with it... but audio is still woefully lacking if you were hoping to replicate your Cubase + NI Komplete experience... Even running Windoze Cubase + Windoze Komplete in WINE is very problematic.

But, if you can become a professional Linux geek for a Fortune 500 company, a tech company or a big website, it's very easy to make $100k/yr or more(maybe much more). There's far more demand for Linux geeks than there is actual Linux geeks, so I would never tell anybody that learning it is a waste of time...