2022 Linux Audio Users Poll (Please vote!)

[ghettosynth]

As I've mentioned before, I've been using Linux in some fashion from within a few years that it came on the scene. I still have the first distribution on 1.2M floppies somewhere that I played with for a few minutes. Back then you needed a specific IDE hard drive to get it running from a hard drive and I couldn't justify that at the time.

Here's the thing though, I've always had some need for a Linux box that was independent of my needs for other types of machines. It was that need that drove what I installed and that allowed me to naturally explore whether it was useful to me for other applications. So, just as an example, my first linux box replaced Dave Mischler's IProute to be my internet gateway back in the dialup days. I replicated this setup for my employer and Linux became a part of my work life.

I used Linux for servers and development in various employment settings throughout the 2000s. It became my daily work desktop machine sometime around 2008/2009 when my core 2 mac started experiencing problems and I also needed a more powerful machine than a laptop could provide.

I think that it's really helpful to explore Linux on a machine separate from your daily driver. Find this secondary use case and give it a chance in a secondary context to get used to it without risk.

For example, do you have an old laptop? Do you surf the web while you sit on the couch watching TV? Put Linux on it and just use it to surf the web and read email. You will probably find that daily use isn't much different but you get to figure out all of the little quirks that will annoy you if you are trying to depend on it for actual work.

Frankly, unless you want to use Reaper, Bitwig, or Traktion, then you may find it painful to switch to Linux for audio. If you are using Reaper in particular, then you can install Reaper on your secondary laptop and try doing some basic tasks with that. For example, render some stems on your windows/mac machine, and then try to mix those on your Linux machine. This will help you get used to the differences with no risk to your normal workflow.

I have never been a Linux evangelist. I do not advocate that people switch to Linux unless they are specific types of users that I know already have the mindset but don't realize the benefits.

There are some changing elements of audio production and some new triggers that may push more people onto Linux. The explosion of IOS popularity for audio has helped push class compliant audio hardware which is great for Linux. Stuff that used to require a lot of effort now just works out of the box.

For me though, the biggest trigger is the increasing lockdown of your desktop to the OS vendor. Requiring a Microsoft/Apple account to make effective use of machines and increasing use of your data to drive their revenue models is pushing me towards more use of Linux. It is becoming increasingly more irritating to use both OS/X and Windows.

At any rate, just trying to keep the discussion going. YMMV and all that.

[AnX]

Tried it once on a USB stick to recover an HD, didn't work....despite everyone telling me it was amazing and the answer my woes....

[audiojunkie]

As I've mentioned before, I've been using Linux in some fashion from within a few years that it came on the scene. I still have the first distribution on 1.2M floppies somewhere that I played with for a few minutes. Back then you needed a specific IDE hard drive to get it running from a hard drive and I couldn't justify that at the time.

Here's the thing though, I've always had some need for a Linux box that was independent of my needs for other types of machines. It was that need that drove what I installed and that allowed me to naturally explore whether it was useful to me for other applications. So, just as an example, my first linux box replaced Dave Mischler's IProute to be my internet gateway back in the dialup days. I replicated this setup for my employer and Linux became a part of my work life.

I used Linux for servers and development in various employment settings throughout the 2000s. It became my daily work desktop machine sometime around 2008/2009 when my core 2 mac started experiencing problems and I also needed a more powerful machine than a laptop could provide.

I think that it's really helpful to explore Linux on a machine separate from your daily driver. Find this secondary use case and give it a chance in a secondary context to get used to it without risk.

For example, do you have an old laptop? Do you surf the web while you sit on the couch watching TV? Put Linux on it and just use it to surf the web and read email. You will probably find that daily use isn't much different but you get to figure out all of the little quirks that will annoy you if you are trying to depend on it for actual work.

Frankly, unless you want to use Reaper, Bitwig, or Traktion, then you may find it painful to switch to Linux for audio. If you are using Reaper in particular, then you can install Reaper on your secondary laptop and try doing some basic tasks with that. For example, render some stems on your windows/mac machine, and then try to mix those on your Linux machine. This will help you get used to the differences with no risk to your normal workflow.

I have never been a Linux evangelist. I do not advocate that people switch to Linux unless they are specific types of users that I know already have the mindset but don't realize the benefits.

There are some changing elements of audio production and some new triggers that may push more people onto Linux. The explosion of IOS popularity for audio has helped push class compliant audio hardware which is great for Linux. Stuff that used to require a lot of effort now just works out of the box.

For me though, the biggest trigger is the increasing lockdown of your desktop to the OS vendor. Requiring a Microsoft/Apple account to make effective use of machines and increasing use of your data to drive their revenue models is pushing me towards more use of Linux. It is becoming increasingly more irritating to use both OS/X and Windows.

At any rate, just trying to keep the discussion going. YMMV and all that.

You make excellent points! I too have followed Linux since the early days. I work in I.T. and do computer work for a living. I've been able to watch the changes throughout the years and see things get easier and easier. If you look back through the threads, you'll see that I had moved to iPad and iPhone music production back when everyone here made fun of it. Now, like you said, it's popular and Class Compliant hardware no longer has a bad name. The point I'm getting at, is that I think we are very similar in how we got into Linux. My last straw for using Windows for anything at all was exactly as you said, "the increasing lockdown of your desktop to the OS vendor. Requiring a Microsoft/Apple account to make effective use of machines and increasing use of your data to drive their revenue models". I was so happy to realize that Linux works great for pro audio nowadays, because it meant that (aside from work), I wouldn't have to deal with that draconian commercial BS from corporate OSes. Since then, I've been researching and researching to learn more and more about what works best in Linux pro audio and what doesn't. This has been primarily for my own personal interests. However, as I've learned, I've also shared what I've learned, because I know that others feel the same way as you and I, and just don't know how to start making the switch.

Your advice to start with another Linux machine to play around with and get familiar with Linux is dead on correct. As people actually take the time to try Linux in a helpful setting, they can realize that it really has a lot to offer.

[audiojunkie]

Tried it once on a USB stick to recover an HD, didn't work....despite everyone telling me it was amazing and the answer my woes....

If that is the only experience you've had wit Linux, I can understand why you might be disappointed with it. I remember back in my early days of Linux computing trying exactly what you mention you tried, and it didn't work for me either! I just didn't know enough about how Linux works to achieve what I needed to do. There is no question that there is a definite learning curve to making Linux work for you. Without that knowledge, Linux becomes a troublesome, frustrating task that doesn't work. Nowadays, even when troubleshooting Windows machines, I will often load up Linux from a flash drive to test and diagnose problems. It works great and is extremely helpful--but that's because I've been working with it for years. Linux has become much more user friendly over the years, but I don't think anyone can actually make it useful without learning how it all works. I would advise you to try a live distro just to play around with it--a live distro with a general purpose Linux installation can really help with getting an idea as to how things work.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I would seriously consider it but I will wait until I replace my Motu ultra lite on day. It doesnt have driver's for Linux yet. I would rather not use wine. I do have a Reaper installed on my everyday Mint distro. Works just fine for post but not sure I could record with it.

[harryupbabble]

i tried linux once.
it required lotsa typing in consoles.
went back to windows.

linux is trying to be windows?
trying to be user friendly?

[harryupbabble]

someday maybe.
when linux is totally like windows.

[AnX]

Tried it once on a USB stick to recover an HD, didn't work....despite everyone telling me it was amazing and the answer my woes....

If that is the only experience you've had wit Linux, I can understand why you might be disappointed with it.

I'm not saying it was Linux at fault, prob bad advice or user error, I sure wish it had worked tho, got some old photos I really would like to save, and poss some music too... the HD is fine, its just not allowing me to copy files as I'm not administrator (I took it out of and old PC and put it in a cheap USB case)

Anyway, a bit OT....

[ghettosynth]

i tried linux once.
it required lotsa typing in consoles.
went back to windows.

linux is trying to be windows?
trying to be user friendly?

Like I said, this isn't the way to get to grips with Linux. Moreover, if you have no need to do so, then there's not really much point. You should stick with Windows or OS/X as you prefer.

It's painting with a very broad brush to ask if Linux is trying to be like Windows and then assuming that user friendliness is the underlying explanation. Windows has a certain level of user-friendliness, yes, but is developing higher levels of consumer-unfriendliness, something that Linux has in spades.

The path to Linux is having a need for Linux. That need could be technical, as it is primarily for me, but it could also be driven by other needs, e.g., privacy and flexibility, or in some cases, even cost. Although, for the moment, that is no longer really a factor and is becoming less so as Microsoft leans less and less on charging end consumers directly for their OS.

We're at least a few years, maybe a decade (or two) away from average users migrating to Linux on the desktop. When Microsoft has you locked into their subscription model for OS/Office/Cloud storage such that your OS no longer functions without the internet and without paying every month, and as a part of that you agree to let them crawl all of your data so that they can deliver "rich advertisement experiences," well, some users might decide that consumer-friendliness, privacy, and flexibility matters enough.

[ghettosynth]

Tried it once on a USB stick to recover an HD, didn't work....despite everyone telling me it was amazing and the answer my woes....

If that is the only experience you've had wit Linux, I can understand why you might be disappointed with it.

I'm not saying it was Linux at fault, prob bad advice or user error, I sure wish it had worked tho, got some old photos I really would like to save, and poss some music too... the HD is fine, its just not allowing me to copy files as I'm not administrator (I took it out of and old PC and put it in a cheap USB case)

Anyway, a bit OT....

Yeah, this is really just user error though. Take the drive (and a case of good beer) to a good friend who knows how to do sysadmin work, and they will most likely be able to get your data back. Or, just send it to a data recovery service.

[SPBaumann]

Pretty sure this poll is going to be biased by non-Linux folks mostly not bothering to click on it.

Nearly . I -as a member of the non-Linux folk- would have bothered to click on it, if it hasn´t be too late.

[farlukar]

[…] I will wait until I replace my Motu ultra lite on day.

Is that a firewire version? Most USB interfaces tend to Just Work…

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

Yeah it's the Hybrid has both FW 400 and usb 2. I used to use FW with Mac. But have been usb for years now with Win 7. Simple working and working optimally are different.

[ghettosynth]

Yeah it's the Hybrid has both FW 400 and usb 2. I used to use FW with Mac. But have been usb for years now with Win 7. Simple working and working optimally are different.

Fair point. That's a useful discussion all by itself. One thing that I like about Linux is that stuff that no longer had driver support in the mainstream OSes can work fine in Linux. I use my Audio Kontrol 1 on my linux desktop. It just works.

[StudioDave]

Not long ago I switched to using a Mac Mini M1 for my music production. I had been using Linux solely since the late 1990s.

Why the switch ? My production capacity had hit the wall, and upgrading my Ubuntu system had become a necessity. Alas, I discovered a wealth of problems with my clearly out-of-date hardware, so after trying and failing to achieve satisfaction from four different distros I took some advice and switched to the Mac.

Now, to be clear, as a company Apple surely sucks almost as much as Microsoft. But the M1 machine simply smokes what I was using for Linux (AMD FX-6300), especially with VCV Rack (it wants better single-core performance than the AMD delivers) and that's my sole concern at this point. Ergo, I'm a fairly happy camper.

I'm not giving up my Linux music machine. I've tossed out the nVidia grief-giver and I'm limiting Ubuntu to 18.04 (no driver support for my Radeon fanless card after 18.04). I plan to use the box primarily for Csound, Pd, SuperCollider et cetera. On that machine it'll be only open-source music software.

Best regards,

dp