I finally got Linux working!

[Amridell]

After months of using Windows (which is good, but not AS good, IMO), I finally get my Linux working. I had wireless issues, but I had someone who works in computers to look to (looking for a job in computers), and I got it working, and learned a lot. So...yeah. Any fellow Penguins in the Playground?

[Haruki-kun]

Former penguin. Ran Ubuntu for two years, then I switched to W7, then to Mac. I'm an animator so I require a lot of commercial software that won't run on Linux and Mac was best for my needs. But I did enjoy my time running Ubuntu, personalizing it was a lot of fun.

What distro are you running?

[peterpaulrubens]

I much prefer LInux to Windows. I'm posting from my Ubuntu machine right now actually, though I'm connected to it from my Win7 laptop via NX.

If I didn't need to run Sql Server Management Studio at $work, I could get away with my CentOS machine as my primary workstation. But I can't. :smallyuk:

[valadil]

Congrats! I've been using Linux primarily for just under 11 years. These days I mostly use Debian stable (I don't like things breaking unless I tell them to break), but I have Ubuntu at work since my work laptop needed newer drivers and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about Unity (I don't much care for it).

[Inglenook]

I love how Ubuntu looks and runs, but I a sadly require a lot of fiddly little programs that are Windows only. :smallfrown:

[TSGames]

Congratulations on your first Linux install!

What version and distro are you running?

Personally, I don't use Ubuntu anymore, although it is a great starter Linux. I tend to run which ever distro will suit my current needs. At last count, I've run more than five distros as main installs on various machines. Most were Debian based (sudo apt-get ftw), but I generally prefer Slax based Linux. I've never run a version of BSD yet, but I have run Android as a main OS on a desktop (definitely not the easiest setup).

The point is that you can do anything with Linux and there so many flavors to choose from based on need and skill level. Welcome to freedom, welcome to choice, and welcome to the community!

[factotum]

I don't use Linux on my main machine because I play a lot of games on the PC, and that's not something Linux is really any good at as yet...this may change if Valve's push to get Steam on Linux works out, of course! I have Ubuntu 12.04 on my laptop, though, which I'm currently using to post this since I'm away from home.

[Whoracle]

almost 13 years of using Linux here and counting :)

Great to welcome another one to the fold.
If I may ask, what was the wireless problem you had?

Anyways, after trying a lot of different distros (openSuse, debian, fedora, centos, ubuntu, mandriva back when it was called mandrake, LFS and gentoo) I'm currently (and for the foreseeable future) using Arch Linux (http://www.archlinux.org).

[factotum]

If I may ask, what was the wireless problem you had?


Probably the same one I had--namely, using a Broadcom BCM43 wireless chipset that requires you to fiddle around with the proprietary firmware from Broadcom's Windows driver to get the thing to work.

[Whoracle]

That's what I'd have guessed. May I point you to this (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless)? The b43 is crud, but the boradcom-wl does the job.

[JoshL]

Former/casual user. Long ago (98ish) I mostly ran SuSE, then got into BSD. I cut my *nix teeth on Solaris. At one point I had a Beowulf cluster of outdated machines (12 node at it's peak) for no better reason than I wanted to do it.

However, time and my computer use changed. Like Haruki-kun, I needed more commercial software (music production and recording for me). I went Windows...or I should say fully Windows, because I always had a machine with a win partition. I do know plenty of people, of course, who use Linux for music, but my needs are a little different.

I do often have a live boot usb drive with a distro on it, that I will occasionally play around with.

[valadil]

I do know plenty of people, of course, who use Linux for music, but my needs are a little different.


Out of curiosity, what linux music production software can you recommend? Where does linux fail to meet your needs?

I ask because my band is struggling with software. TuxGuitar works for me, since all I want is tab. Our flutist uses Musescore, which seemed awesome until I couldn't get it to handle tab. The guitarist uses everything, but prefers Renoise. I don't even know what the drummer is using. We're thinking of switching to Finale, but that leaves me stuck with a VM.

[Yora]

After some first troubles with setting everything up, that had me doing new installations I think six times, I am now very happy with Fedora 17 KDE.
Windows kept being dumbed down with every version, each time taking away from me ways to customize things my way and solve problems the way I think it's best.
Ubuntu with Gnome 3 was a huge disappointment, of course, which is even dumber than any Windows I've ever seen. Gnome is an opperating system for people who don't know anything about how computers work and neither care. It's a ready to use package that does what it does and does not want you to want anything else.

But KDE is neat, allows me to handle things like I want.

[valadil]

Ubuntu with Gnome 3 was a huge disappointment, of course, which is even dumber than any Windows I've ever seen. Gnome is an opperating system for people who don't know anything about how computers work and neither care. It's a ready to use package that does what it does and does not want you to want anything else.

Gnome's not actually an operating system. It's a desktop environment. That's a vague term, but it usually means a collection of applications for desktop use. At a bare minimum, it would include a window manager (the thing that lets you move, close, maximize etc your windows), a panel/dock, and a desktop. Gnome is pretty full featured and includes a bit more than that.

I used to like Gnome but it's gotten a little too Mac like. They spend a lot of time trying to figure out the One True Workflow and support that with few options for configuration. When Gnome's defaults coincided with my preferences, it was great.

Also, the latest Ubuntu isn't using Gnome, but Unity, which (I think) is an extension of Gnome 3. As far as I can tell, it has some decent ideas but is unfinished. As they add more features (like the ability to move the dock from the left side of the screen to any side of your choice) I think it'll get a lot more usable. Personally I quite liked the menu bar/panel, so I kept that and ditched the rest of it.

[factotum]

Also, the latest Ubuntu isn't using Gnome, but Unity, which (I think) is an extension of Gnome 3.

Unity isn't based on Gnome at all, AFAIK--it's entirely Canonical's baby.

[valadil]

Unity isn't based on Gnome at all, AFAIK--it's entirely Canonical's baby.

I've heard that too. But I've also heard so many conflicting reports of how Unity was conceived that I can't keep track of what's rumor and what's canonical anymore.

[JoshL]

Most of my music-work these days is doing film scores. I've put tons of money into orchestral libraries that I haven't been able to get to work well in Linux (major deal breaker there). I also run a Virus TI as my main synth, and the VST front-end for it is astounding...but not linux-able. Ditto the Korg Karma (which I don't use quite as often, but still do sometimes). Sampler-wise, I'm using Independence Free these days, which does what I need it to do.

For a DAW, I'm using Sonar these days, which integrates pretty well with video (necessary for scoring) and is pretty deep for MIDI. I don't like the changes they made with X1, though audio recording is much better, MIDI editing was definitely a step backwards.

As far as Linux software, I like the Rosegarden interface (comfortable if you've used Reaper, Cubase or Sonar), but most of the musicians I know who run Linux use lmms. Of course, those are all experimental electronica folks, so tabs and notation aren't really their concern! But one runs guitars and other instruments through a netbook with lmms as an effects processor (with various plugins, of course).

At the end of the day, it's about the music and not the tools you use to make/document it. There is no absolute better or worse, just depends on your workflow and what you are trying to do. I've never played with notation beyond a pen and a notebook, so I'm not sure what would work well for you. I have made sheet music in Finale before, and it's pretty flexible (though pretty time consuming).

I also agree that Gnome has gone way too far in the mac-alike direction, but I've always used KDE anyway. Haven't looked at Unity, but heard lots of people complaining about it.

[Balain]

I use to use linux at work. KDE if I recall right. I had installed Corell linux years ago on a home computer, and more recently ubuntu. Currently I am running windows 7 on my home computer, mostly for games, and a mac book pro mostly for school.

I do like linux though