Linux users, which distro(s) are you currently liking? (for your DAW use)?

[mjolnir]

I'm just curious, if you are running Linux which distro(s) are you liking as a DAW foundation?

I was recently tempted to switch to Artix from Manjaro, but the install completely failed on a test drive.
I'll probably stick with Manjaro, which is an Arch-like Linux, but I'm always curious about other people's experiences too.

I'm not having any troubles with Manjaro, but I also wonder if I'd get slightly more maximum simultaneous tracks and plugins before I'd have to start freezing. It's not really a problem, just a curiosity. Usually I get the whole tune done before I run out of power. Also, I don't even switch out of "ondemand" CPU mode to "performance" mode.

But as a hobby I used to distro hop, so I just wonder what other people use.
So, if you feel like it, tell us what distro your DAW is running on, and if it's running smoothly.

[glokraw]

My main setup is AVLinux from a few years back, as it works with my windows plugins well enough to keep it in isolation from updates. Very happy with it. I tried Manjaro quite a few years back, and thought it was a fine system, but lacked the synaptic package manager, and that is a deal-breaker. Arch does have a good selection of audio tools to choose from, and a few different ways to install it, which Arch users can pick and choose from. I installed the latest Mint recently, in hopes of testing Fender's free daw, which required wayland, and modern libs, so I'll keep it atound to try new tools, like the NeuralRack from the Guitarix dev.
I also have a recent install of pclinuxos, and an older version on my wife's computers. It's stable, and has a good forum when in the weeds OpenSuse goes way back in linux audio history. They had a Jacklab distro introducing wineasio, bringing windows plugins into usefulness in linux. Stanford University brought a Red Hat variant to the forefront, with realtime kernel, and the CCRMA repository, and Dave Phillips was writing magazine articles for linux musicians in the tree-harvested-paper Linux Journal magazine. Things moved slower back then, but were very accurate and useful. Ubuntu Studio 8.06 was stashed away on a Linux Format Magazine cover dvd, along with pclinuxOS, both of which greatly benefitted my beginning musical journey.

[lobanov]

Linux lacks compressors and synthesizers but has countless distros...

[glokraw]

All those distros result from freedom applied to passions and hobbies It can be a distraction, but buying a car or house is much the same situation. Even pizza and cheeseburgers are multitudinous in variations.

As for synths, in 2025, U-he, discoDSP, Bitwig, Surge, SixSines, Odin, Yoshimi, and Calf cover plenty of territory, and hundeds of good windows synths work well enough in wine. The yabridge and linvst plugin wrappers made it quite easy for Reaper and other linux daws to scan windows plugins, and present them to linux in a useable format. Lots of good wine-related documentation here:

https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge

Cheers

[Largos]

Linux lacks compressors and synthesizers but has countless distros...

hurr durr

https://linuxdaw.org/?t=compressor&t=synth

[lobanov]

All those distros result from freedom applied to passions and hobbies It can be a distraction, but buying a car or house is much the same situation. Even pizza and cheeseburgers are multitudinous in variations.

As for synths, in 2025, U-he, discoDSP, Bitwig, Surge, SixSines, Odin, Yoshimi, and Calf cover plenty of territory, and hundeds of good windows synths work well enough in wine. The yabridge and linvst plugin wrappers made it quite easy for Reaper and other linux daws to scan windows plugins, and present them to linux in a useable format. Lots of good wine-related documentation here:

https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge

Cheers

Then the situation is worse than I've thought!

(it's just irony)

[BertKoor]

SickOS ??

5b9c8ddd39bac324.png

[dan_flash]

LMDE 6

Love it. Just does everything fine. Stable. Just using an open source DAW (Ardour) plus open source plugins at the mo (Airwindows, Arboreal Audio, LSP, Zam etc etc) and I'm happy as a pig in shit.

Renoise also flies on the two machines but haven't done anything with Renoise in donkeys years.