Does Linux have a viable future for us?

[Hermitage59]

I'm interested to know your views about Linux as an alternative to Windows and Mac, specifically in our field of music production.

Are there credible programs already written for this format, (if so, which ones?), and is there hardware and software support from soundcard/usb/controller manufacturers etc.? What are the programming challenges for sample libraries in Linux based programs?

What's your view and/or experience?

Regards,

Alex.

[mike harper]

i would hope so . i am using xandros its great

[c.k]

Hello from former native Moscovite :)


I'd say, it's coming, slowly, but steadily.

Muse Receptor is a viable option right now. U2 used it on their last tour. It runs on LINUX.

LinuxSampler project looks quite promising.

A few years more - and highly restrictive DRM/TCPA "features" on a Windows side could push many end users to LINUX... if the last one is ready.


The questions remain:

- Which LINUX. There are tons of them at the moment. It would be tough for both the HW and SW vendors to support multiple Operating Systems, based on different versions of the kernel.

- Which GUI? Gnome? KDE? WindowMaker? AfterStep?


Once these questions are answered, expect some ports of well-established applications to be come available for Penguin lovers.

Cheers,

ck

[Hermitage59]

Hello ck.
Do you miss the place? It's wonderful at the moment, snow everywhere, fireworks most nights, russian xmas day, and of course the 'snow princesses'.

I'm interested in the potential of Linux, and i don't know that much about it, hence the question. I've been told it's a lot simpler, easier, and more stable than either mac or Windows. Is this true? What's the advantages or disadvantages of Linux versus the other two?

And if a thinking developer were to come up with a Linux 'audio' operating system version that provided at least some sort of standard, I wonder if the HW and SW developers would take notice.

Mike, what's Xandros? Is there a website you could point me to?

Any info about Linux audio would be appreciated.

Regards,

Alex.

[geronimo001]

I'm thinking about geting one for my internet(web PC), i hear it's safer against pirates,... after being hijacked by a well know samples compagny, i'm not gonna name this compagny but let's just say, they tend to have tuning problemes;) , any body use this?

[howardv]

I thought the Mac was already running under Linux as of OS X. What I don't get is why you don't see Mac applications being ported en mass to other Linux implementations. Perhaps because Apple adds proprietary api's? Or maybe because the authors prefer not to?

Howard

[Hermitage59]

So does anyone use a Linux DAW?
Is there one?

Alex.

[Daryl]

I thought the Mac was already running under Linux as of OS X. What I don't get is why you don't see Mac applications being ported en mass to other Linux implementations. Perhaps because Apple adds proprietary api's? Or maybe because the authors prefer not to?

Howard

I think that you'll see Mac applications ported to Windows long before Linux; an example would be Altiverb 5. The other thing to remember is that some Mac apps (Logic) are actually owned by Apple, so there is no chance that they will ever be ported to a system where Apple doesn't have a monopoly on the hardware.

D

[Tom Crowning]

I'm interested to know your views about Linux as an alternative to Windows and Mac, specifically in our field of music production.
[...]

I'm a long time linux user and I'm very happy with it because it's very stable
and uses the hardware resources much more economical then Windows
(I can't speak for Mac here, sorry).

My advice is:

- if you're a professional musician/producer, I'd wait until the big players
offer their software for Linux (and they WILL someday because Linux
cannot be ignored anymore)

- if music is your hobby, I'd install a Linux distribution additionally on
your system (yes, that's possible without problem) to see if you like
it and if the software available does the job for you.

[Daryl]

I thought Windows Vista was going to be released at the end of 2006. Regardless, from what I've seen, I think a lot of Windows users are going to be shocked beyond belief at no longer being able to do a lot of things they now completely take for granted. That will either give a boost to Linux, or people will hunker down and sit tight with their Windows XP machines.

Lee Blaske

I now run exclusively Windows machines, and have no intention of "testing" Vista in the short term. When my machines can't do what I ask of them (or VSL comes out with yet another technological marvel that just HAS to run on Vista) I'll think about upgrading, but hopefully by then many of the winkles will have been ironed out.
Who knows, I may even get an IntelMac, if they manage to match the speed and price of PCs, although I'm not holding my breath.

D

[Hermitage59]

I'm a long time linux user and I'm very happy with it because it's very stable
and uses the hardware resources much more economical then Windows
(I can't speak for Mac here, sorry).

My advice is:

- if you're a professional musician/producer, I'd wait until the big players
offer their software for Linux (and they WILL someday because Linux
cannot be ignored anymore)

- if music is your hobby, I'd install a Linux distribution additionally on
your system (yes, that's possible without problem) to see if you like
it and if the software available does the job for you.

Tom, thanks for the tips.
What sort of software IS available for LinuX? (DAW?)

Regards,

Alex.

[Tom Crowning]

Tom, thanks for the tips.
What sort of software IS available for LinuX? (DAW?)

Regards,

Alex.
see links below:

Rosegarden:
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/ (Homepage)

Ardour:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7796 (Test)
http://ardour.org/ (Homepage)

Muse:
http://www.muse-sequencer.org/ (Homepage)

These are the main applications I know, what (for me) is more
interesting is that the Linux people are completing more and more
frameworks and standards to easily build new plug-ins (similar to
VST plug-ins) or synthesizers (similar to NIs Reaktor technology).
See:
http://www.agnula.org/packages/alsa_modular_synth/
http://www.agnula.org/packages/jack_audio_connection_kit/
http://www.agnula.org/packages/jmax/

Audio plug-ins: http://linux-sound.org/plugins.html (have a look at the
VSTi section)

Softsynth: http://linux-sound.org/swss.html (in the middle of the page.
Lots of (below) average synths, but there are some real pearls available).

The provided links are a good starting point for further reading.
Keep in mind that music on Linux is still in a very early stage, but
we will see interesting developments the next years for sure.

Tom

[c.k]

Hello ck.
Do you miss the place? It's wonderful at the moment, snow everywhere, fireworks most nights, russian xmas day, and of course the 'snow princesses'.




Greetings Alex,

I don't miss the place. It might be wonderful at the moment, and it's a nice place to vists as a tourist... but in reality it's an ugly one. No democracy, no rule of law, people's life costs nothing... I'm happy be there, not there.






I've been told it's a lot simpler, easier, and more stable than either mac or Windows. Is this true?


It's not more stable, and definitely not easier than Mac. Will it be improved? Time will tell :)




So does anyone use a Linux DAW?
Is there one?


You could give it a try:
http://cvsup.de.openbsd.org/pub/suse/i386/live-cd-9.2/README-LiveCD-Audio.txt

The .iso image could be found here:
http://cvsup.de.openbsd.org/pub/suse/i386/live-cd-9.2/

No installation is required, just boot from the CD.





I thought Windows Vista was going to be released at the end of 2006. Regardless, from what I've seen, I think a lot of Windows users are going to be shocked beyond belief at no longer being able to do a lot of things they now completely take for granted. That will either give a boost to Linux, or people will hunker down and sit tight with their Windows XP machines.



Hello Lee,

It would take a year or so for Redmond to nail down initial bugs, so I won't expect to see mass adoption by both end users, and developers before the end of 2007.

There's nothing wrong with XP, except for memory limitations imposed by 32-bit OS. The exodus will start when the vendors drop XP support. I doubt we will see it before 2008.

By that time MacIntel would be fully up and running, so I guess we'll see many dual- and triple-boot DAWs then.
:cool:


Cheers from Canada,

ck

[Hardy Heern]

I used to have an PC emulator on my Atari. Now I'm waiting for a 'Windows XP' emulator which will run on Linux......as Captain Oates misquotedly said....."It may be some time....."

Frank

[obiwan]

Hello ck.
I've been told it's a lot simpler, easier, and more stable than either mac or Windows. Is this true? What's the advantages or disadvantages of Linux versus the other two?

I can't believe that Linux would be simpler or easier than Mac OS X - it would certainly be a cheaper option though. On the stability front, It's a lot more stable than Windows although does not have the array of software and hardware support that Windows users enjoy.

Linux benefits from having the same reliability Mac users boast (being based on the same Unix underpinnings), without the expense of needing propriatory hardware to run it (and software for that matter) so strikes a happy medium between the two.

I guess the main disadvantages are lack of 'mainstream' software (ie. if you wish to run Cubase for example) and needing some technical expertise in order to configure certain hardware devices.

[Gamera]

Anybody remember BeOS? Sure, Linux is open, but that doesn't mean it can't go away if not supported.

Development is going to go where the money is, and that's Windows & OSX. Linux will remain on the fringe as long as it sticks around.

- G

[Nick Batzdorf]

I think a lot of Windows users are going to be shocked beyond belief at no longer being able to do a lot of things they now completely take for granted. That will either give a boost to Linux, or people will hunker down and sit tight with their Windows XP machines.

Or they'll use Macs.

But what things are you talking about?

[howardv]

Obviously, the biggest threat to Linux's continued existance are the separate lawsuits OSI and SCO have going against Apple, IBM, and Red Hat. I haven't been keeping up but have any of these been settled or resolved?

I do know that Microsoft recently purchased its own Unix license from SCO as a protective measure. Probably because Windows uses a handful of Unix-ported cli's like nslookup, ping, tracert, and netstat. But it's never used the Unix mark the way Apple does.

I suspect Linux community's fallback defensive position will likely be Stallman/GNU licensing. GNU, interesting enough, is a self-referential acronym standing for "GNU's Not Unix". Which may leave Apple out in the cold if they keep on claiming that OSX is Unix.

Howard

[c.k]

Obviously, the biggest threat to Linux's continued existance are the separate lawsuits OSI and SCO have going against Apple, IBM, and Red Hat. I haven't been keeping up but have any of these been settled or resolved?

I do know that Microsoft recently purchased its own Unix license from SCO as a protective measure. Probably because Windows uses a handful of Unix-ported cli's like nslookup, ping, tracert, and netstat. But it's never used the Unix mark the way Apple does.

I suspect Linux community's fallback defensive position will likely be Stallman/GNU licensing. GNU, interesting enough, is a self-referential acronym standing for "GNU's Not Unix". Which may leave Apple out in the cold if they keep on claiming that OSX is Unix.

Howard



Greetings Howard,


SCO went after IBM and Novell (who claims to have the IP rights on System V UNIX).

MS (and Sun Microsystems) purchased the license from SCO simply to support the lawsuit, to hurt Linux.

OS X is BSD-based UNIX, which has very little in common with Linux (except for the fact that million lines of BSD code have been 'borrowed' by LINUX developers, thanks to extremely liberal Berkley license. BTW, utilities like arp, netstat, nslookup and tracert in Windows are taken from BSD - as well as complete TCP/IP stack.

Similar legal battle, by AT&T against BSD was over by the end of 1994. The BSD kernel has been re-written, so it became 100% free of System V code.

To sum it up: there is NOTHING Apple users need to worry about. As for LINUX/IBM/Novell, we'll see. I guess, SCO will run out of cash long before the court hearings. :)



Cheers,

ck

[howardv]

Thanks, ck. I was wondering why the Apple suit only seemed to deal with use of the Unix name while the others claim use of proprietary code. I understand Apple's defense is based on a position that the name is generic. Microsoft didn't do so well with that strategy over Java.

I also didn't realize SCO was sueing Novell, who sold Unix to the original SCO in the 1st place. Slander of Title. That's different.

Howard

[Bruce A. Richardson]

I thought Windows Vista was going to be released at the end of 2006. Regardless, from what I've seen, I think a lot of Windows users are going to be shocked beyond belief at no longer being able to do a lot of things they now completely take for granted. That will either give a boost to Linux, or people will hunker down and sit tight with their Windows XP machines.

Lee Blaske

As far as the DRM situation goes, I hope it will be same old same old. Sabres will be rattled, and ultimately the pro audio apps will be given hooks as workarounds and it will largely be business as usual.