Linux Users, What's You Distro Experience?

[mjolnir]

Linux users, what did you like or not like about some Linux distributions that you've tried?

Here's some of the distros I've tried and considered using as a DAW foundation:

AntiX
ArtiX
AVLINUX
Debian
Devuan
Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE)
Lubuntu
Manjaro Mate (discontinued)
Manjaro XFCE
MX Linux
Ubuntu Studio
WattOS
Xubuntu

For DE's, I've had most stability with XFCE, but I like the visuals of MATE.
I haven't tried Cinnamon yet.

I also tried Puppy Linux

[BertKoor]

Lemme get this straight: what you have considered is not what you have actually tried? Some you have tried, but not with a DAW? You did try Puppy, but you're not telling us your verdict?

The idea of a public forum is not to hold your cards. Experience sharing is done here:
viewtopic.php?t=144490

I find this whole distro-picking business exemplary of:

Linux is free
If you don't value your time

[glokraw]

Linux users, what did you like or not like about some Linux distributions that you've tried?
AVLINUX

MX Linux

Hi, AVLinux is based on debian MX Linux, 95% pre-configured for audio, has wine and yabridge plugin wrapper installed. By default it uses pipewire for audio, and Enlightenment for DE, but I use jackd and qjackctl for audio, and xfce for DE. Recent support has been added for Scarlet audio interfaces. I use an maidio pci card, no problems for a decade! I use Native Instruments and IK Multimedia in wine, and the great U-he linux ports natively, with linux Reaper, and windows Reaper in wine.
That would be my choice. Watch some videos on the Synaptic package manager, if adding/removing software is new to you.
Cheers

[FrettedSynth]

BTW, these are the changes I made to the system. All based on a debian system.

Add lines to /etc/security/limits.conf

@[user] - rtprio 98 # maximum realtime priority
@[user] - memlock unlimited # maximum locked-in-memory address space (KB)

Save the file.

Where @[user] can be any users name or set to a group such as audio.
If using a group the user must be setup as a user of that group.


Set cpu governor to performance in /etc/default/cpufrequtils if it don't exist create the file and add lines.

ENABLE="true"
GOVERNOR="performance"
MAX_SPEED="0"
MIN_SPEED="0"

Save the file.

To check the governor in terminal use 'cpufreq-info'


Set threadirqs and spectre\meltdown mitigation in /etc/default/grub with changes to GRUB_CMDLINE make it like this:

GRUB_DEFAULT="0"
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(unset PRETTY_NAME; (. /etc/lsb-release; echo ${PRETTY_NAME:?}) 2>/dev/null || echo Debian)"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="threadirqs mitigations=off quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Save the file.

Update grub in terminal using 'sudo update-grub' then reboot


Might be wrong but the machine runs at 64 samples 48khz with no xruns. Might be hard to read was my notes while building the system.

Only add spectre\meltdown fix if using the computer offline.

[lokio]

I like Debian stable with KDE. Lot's of native packages and once you've got it set up it's very little work to maintain. I find the old packages to be less of an issue than it once was.
Just don't make a franken-debian by installing major packages (especially glibc/libc6 and your DE) from other repositories, except maybe from bookworm-backports.

[Artie Fichelle]

I like Debian with Cinnamon Desktop. Alot of distros are relying on Debian, so why not go with the source? As musicians we must push, that the developers make their stuff running natively on linux. How come that some Devs can do that easily without having a problem just as U-he, Bitwig, and Reaper? And others still stick only to Mac and Windows?

[dan_flash]

Tried lots over the years like, Lubuntu (LXQT) was solid and snappy. Used to love #! but haven't tried it recently so no idea if the reboot is good or not.

Really wanted to get in to Void but I just don't have the time for the config and ironing out quirks (fatherhood, work, house building, etc).

Settled on Mint (MATE) because it's no-faff, no-fuss, super fast, super stable. Exactly what I want from an OS these days.

[WackyZoundz]

Mint has been okay for office tasks. Forget about multimedia production.

[FrettedSynth]

Thread shrunk, what did I miss

[dellboy]

Mint has been okay for office tasks. Forget about multimedia production.

I have Bitwig with Yabridge vsts working fine in Mint. All I did was download and install Mint to an external SSD and then install Bitwig. Hold down F12 at boot time and boot into it. No tweaking or anything - it just works.

[BertKoor]

Thread shrunk, what did I miss

Not much... I think a recidivistic shitposter passed by, and a mod was so kind to clean up the mess.

[WackyZoundz]

No tweaking or anything - it just works.

I don't use Bitwig. Yabridge itself needs a lot of tweaking and it's not fully compatible with Wine. It also doesn't work with any of the oversampling VST wrappers I'm using so it's not an option at this point. I don't want to be forced to run all plugins at 44.1 kHz, I need oversampling. And then there is of course the problem of missing audio interface drivers, bad kernel performance and high latency. It's too much too fix and I don't have the time nor knowledge to do all of that. I want to record and mix, not to learn how to program my own Linux distro.

[dellboy]

No tweaking or anything - it just works.

I don't use Bitwig. Yabridge itself needs a lot of tweaking and it's not fully compatible with Wine. It also doesn't work with any of the oversampling VST wrappers I'm using so it's not an option at this point. I don't want to be forced to run all plugins at 44.1 kHz, I need oversampling. And then there is of course the problem of missing audio interface drivers, bad kernel performance and high latency. It's too much too fix and I don't have the time nor knowledge to do all of that. I want to record and mix, not to learn how to program my own Linux distro.

The simple answer is that Linux is not for you. Use a Mac or Windows.

[dan_flash]

Anyone tried AV Linux? How does it compare to other distros for day-to-day use as well as audio production / music?

Always been curious about it but I only use Linux-native software / plugs and Mint has been incredible so far so I've never given it a try. Any time I do try something different like Void or Nix then I always end up coming back to Mint.

[audiojunkie]

Thread shrunk, what did I miss

Not much... I think a recidivistic shitposter passed by, and a mod was so kind to clean up the mess.

I hope I'm not the one being considered a "recidivistic sh**poster"............