Should I make a friend switch to Ubuntu?

[Ebuntor]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine was sick and tired of Windows and I (of course) suggested switching to Ubuntu. The problem is he makes music and uses a lot of professional audio apps such as Sound Forge and Emagic Logic (now called Logic Pro I believe). He also uses “many vstis and vst and dx plugins”. No idea what those are.

I understand the open source/Linux alternative(s) for Sound Forge (http://sound.condorow.net/snded.html) are still light years behind their Windows counterparts and I wonder if there even is an alternative to Logic Pro.
Wine is certainly no option and he tried to run a virtual XP install on a 4Ghz system with 8Gb ddr800 ram but it couldn't run his apps smoothly. Dual booting might be an option but it wouldn't be very handy.

So my question is would it be good idea for him to even consider Ubuntu or another distro? Normally people I help who make the switch to Ubuntu only use it for browsing, email, chatting etc. my friend's needs are more specific however.

[nonewmsgs]

have him dualboot with ubuntu studio. see how he likes it and tell him to at least try to limit his online activities to ubuntu as much as he can because it's a jungle out there.

[Ebuntor]

have him dualboot with ubuntu studio. see how he likes it and tell him to at least try to limit his online activities to ubuntu as much as he can because it's a jungle out there.

Yeah I considered Ubuntu Studio but is it good enough for a professional? Are the apps good enough?

[p_quarles]

I don't do any media production, but I did read a review of Ubuntu Studio a while back. The reviewer's impression was that while it was pretty inadequate for professional video editing, the audio apps were very competitive.

[Frak]

Let her/him try Ubuntu Studio, then leave the rest up to her/him.

[RAV TUX]

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine was sick and tired of Windows and I (of course) suggested switching to Ubuntu. The problem is he makes music and uses a lot of professional audio apps such as Sound Forge and Emagic Logic (now called Logic Pro I believe). He also uses “many vstis and vst and dx plugins”. No idea what those are.

I understand the open source/Linux alternative(s) for Sound Forge (http://sound.condorow.net/snded.html) are still light years behind their Windows counterparts and I wonder if there even is an alternative to Logic Pro.
Wine is certainly no option and he tried to run a virtual XP install on a 4Ghz system with 8Gb ddr800 ram but it couldn't run his apps smoothly. Dual booting might be an option but it wouldn't be very handy.

So my question is would it be good idea for him to even consider Ubuntu or another distro? Normally people I help who make the switch to Ubuntu only use it for browsing, email, chatting etc. my friend's needs are more specific however.

Also suggest along with Ubuntu Studio:
JackLab Audio Distribution (http://cafelinux.org/distropedia/?q=node/173) (direct link to homepage here (http://jacklab.net/jacklaborg/english/))
which is custom made for his needs, if this is less then adequate he may need to go with OS X or Windows.

(About the Title of this thread; the title is a bit disturbing you should never "make" a friend switch to Ubuntu or any other distro, you could and probably should suggest it and even let him see Ubuntu in action on your computer but "make" just seems a bit abrasive.)

[Frak]

I agree with RAV, forgot about JackLab, it is very refined and fine tuned. It's been #1 on LinuxTracker for some time now.

[tgalati4]

From personal experience:

I've mixed live music-to-CD recordings and processed and compressed them with Audacity. Never had a hiccup in the 4 GB of mp3's that I have created. Can't comment on multi-track recording.

Also try Dynebolic as a Live CD. I've used it to record live sessions with an M-Audio Delta 66 card using the envy24control driver. I have it installed in a PII, 300 MHz machine. You don't need a lot of horsepower to record live with Dynebolic.

As long as you can find Linux drivers for all of the head-end equipment, Linux handles the digital processing well.

[Ebuntor]

Thanks for your replies. I'll suggest Ubuntu Studio and JackLab. Hope he'll make the switch. I'll let you know. :)



(About the Title of this thread; the title is a bit disturbing you should never "make" a friend switch to Ubuntu or any other distro, you could and probably should suggest it and even let him see Ubuntu in action on your computer but "make" just seems a bit abrasive.)


I agree, "make" was a bad choice, "Should I help a friend switch to Ubuntu?" would have been better. I believe there's no way to change the thread title unfortunately.

[RAV TUX]

Thanks for your replies. I'll suggest Ubuntu Studio and JackLab. Hope he'll make the switch. I'll let you know. :)




I agree, "make" was a bad choice, "Should I help a friend switch to Ubuntu?" would have been better. I believe there's no way to change the thread title unfortunately.

Yes there is, go back to your original post, and select the "report post" button and simply request the staff to change the title for you. ;)

[RAV TUX]

From personal experience:

I've mixed live music-to-CD recordings and processed and compressed them with Audacity. Never had a hiccup in the 4 GB of mp3's that I have created. Can't comment on multi-track recording.

Also try Dynebolic as a Live CD. I've used it to record live sessions with an M-Audio Delta 66 card using the envy24control driver. I have it installed in a PII, 300 MHz machine. You don't need a lot of horsepower to record live with Dynebolic.

As long as you can find Linux drivers for all of the head-end equipment, Linux handles the digital processing well.

Good one, dyne:bolic and Musix are two more options.

Again, JackLab Audio Distribution is perhaps the most advanced and refined of all the options.

[Ebuntor]

Yes there is, go back to your original post, and select the "report post" button and simply request the staff to change the title for you. ;)

Lol, maybe if we bother them enough with stuff like that they'll finally add a feature to change the title ourselfs. :P

[Ebuntor]

From personal experience:

I've mixed live music-to-CD recordings and processed and compressed them with Audacity. Never had a hiccup in the 4 GB of mp3's that I have created. Can't comment on multi-track recording.

Also try Dynebolic as a Live CD. I've used it to record live sessions with an M-Audio Delta 66 card using the envy24control driver. I have it installed in a PII, 300 MHz machine. You don't need a lot of horsepower to record live with Dynebolic.

As long as you can find Linux drivers for all of the head-end equipment, Linux handles the digital processing well.

Thanks, I'll also suggest Dynebolic.

[Frak]

Lol, maybe if we bother them enough with stuff like that they'll finally add a feature to change the title ourselfs. :P
lol, I wish, that would be a great option, but they would probably put a bean requirement, just like the status change-thingy. :P

[aysiu]

What exactly in Windows is your friend sick and tired of? Perhaps switching to Mac might help? Or starting with some open source Windows applications to ease the transition?

[Frak]

What exactly in Windows is your friend sick and tired of? Perhaps switching to Mac might help? Or starting with some open source Windows applications to ease the transition?
I agree with ayiu, even though OS X is expensive and closed source and they have bad business yada, yada, yada... They are still a great way to experience a *NIX based environment. You can still compile under OS X with Xcode, use apt with Fink, and portage with MacPorts, as well as still have access to X11.

Use it for a year and then try Linux. He will have an easier time (though I think your friend would stick to Mac, because of iLife.)

[RAV TUX]

...he may need to go with OS X...




Perhaps switching to Mac might help?


I agree with ayiu, even though OS X is expensive and closed source and they have bad business yada, yada, yada... They are still a great way to experience a *NIX based environment. You can still compile under OS X with Xcode, use apt with Fink, and portage with MacPorts, as well as still have access to X11.

Use it for a year and then try Linux. He will have an easier time (though I think your friend would stick to Mac, because of iLife.)

again as I originally(and painfully suggested OS X) as an option, I agree with Frak on these points.

[nalmeth]

If he requires a lot of VST(i), odds are he will have to give a lot of them up to do his work in linux. And finding replacements for the functionality he needs will take time. These are some good links to start with:
http://www.sandgreen.dk/xt2/index.html
http://ladspavst.linuxaudio.org/ user submitted compatibility results
http://www.linux-vst.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LADSPA

If he doesn't take to UbuntuStudio/Musix maybe virtualizing ubuntu inside windows would be the best option?
I'm not surprised his audio apps did not run well under a VM, but his RAM should be able to handle Ubuntu & firefox under a VM.


again as I originally(and painfully suggested OS X) as an option, I agree with Frak on these points.
Thats good option too

[Ebuntor]

What exactly in Windows is your friend sick and tired of? Perhaps switching to Mac might help? Or starting with some open source Windows applications to ease the transition?

I understand his system crashing all the time and responds very slowly and he has weird problems with his keyboard. There's a whole list but it was enough for him to try several distros.

Perhaps a Mac would be better, he's kinda worried about the user friendliness of Linux and using the terminal. In case of user friendliness Ubuntu seemed like the best choice.
Also I know him well enough to assume he'd prolly prefer an open source operating system and the whole ideology behind Ubuntu.

I assume a Mac would probably be a better choice for professional audio apps. In his case anything but Windows would be better I guess.

I believe he does use open source apps on Windows though, if he doesn't maybe that would be an improvement.

[Ebuntor]

If he requires a lot of VST(i), odds are he will have to give a lot of them up to do his work in linux. And finding replacements for the functionality he needs will take time. These are some good links to start with:
http://www.sandgreen.dk/xt2/index.html
http://ladspavst.linuxaudio.org/ user submitted compatibility results
http://www.linux-vst.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LADSPA

If he doesn't take to UbuntuStudio/Musix maybe virtualizing ubuntu inside windows would be the best option?
I'm not surprised his audio apps did not run well under a VM, but his RAM should be able to handle Ubuntu & firefox under a VM.

Thanks for the links. :)
Ubuntu as a guest OS instead of Windows is not a bad idea, I had not considered that. That would solve a lot of problems, thank you. :)

Seems he has a lot options, I'm sure one will work out for him. :)

[stuh84]

I use Macs for audio apps, as well as everything else, I just find Linux alternatives lacking compared. Everything else I don't see a huge difference, and in some cases not at all, but for Pro Audio, I personally think Macs are the way to go.

Plus if he's a logic fan, version 7 and the newest 8 are Mac exclusive, as Apple bought out Emagic.

Let him try Ubuntu Studio, I just think Mac is the way to go

[patrick295767]

If he is windows spirit, good and bad points ...
It would be wise that he gets well known distro like fedora or Debian, but that might be hard indeed to start:
suse or ubuntu, could be ... yeap ... but he can get some problems with some packages, but anyhow taht's a good beginning : Ubuntu indeed / Ubuntu Studio , yeap (for a while) . :popcorn: