Re: [microsound] mac osx -> linux?

[Malte Steiner <steiner@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I made the switch from OSX to Linux in 2006 and I am happy with it. 
First you should ask yourself why you want to switch. Is it because of 
open source? What open source can be for you? Me I got fed up with 
constant paying for software updates which often just only are bugfixes, 
while some open source application got better when close ones I payed 
big bucks for. Than being at the mercy of the companies was 
disappointing anyway. A traumatic experience was the cease of SoundDiver 
by Apple, a key application in my studio and something which still has 
to be solved.

Being softwaredeveloper myself I love the openness of not only the 
applicationcode but also the complete operating system plus its 
customizability which is important for my media art installations.

So the switch boosted my possibilities and creativity, but will it do it 
for you too?

First you run into trouble with your hardware, the RME fireface wont 
work. While other RME hardware like pcmciacards or pci cards are well 
supported under Linux, they don't want to release information nor 
drivers for their custom protocol they use on their firewire hardware so 
no one can jump in and write a driver. Simular situation with Motu who 
are hostile too.

To make sure which audiohardware will run you can check out these pages

	http://alsa-project.org/
	http://www.ffado.org/

Audiorecording/Mastering is great under Linux with Ardour and optionally 
Jamin as masteringsoftware.
Midisequencing is a bit unpolished in comparison of applications like 
Cubase or Logic, but possible, for instance Rosegarden or Muse sequencer 
and SEQ24 is great for midiloops.
You mean the old(?) Cecilia for Csound? Works on Linux for ages.

But anyway, you can dual boot or use a Live CD so you can see what Linux 
can do for you.
Do you really need a new laptop? If your G4 is not broken it should 
still do well with some PPC Linux distributions and safe you some money. 
Ubuntu was or maybe still have versions for PPC, check their forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org

They got a music centric 'distribution' called Ubuntustudio.

Another very good music centric distribution is 64 Studio for Intel/AMD 
32 or 64 Bit cpus:

http://64studio.com/

Its highly recommended when you get a X86 laptop (which are 
unfortunally  nearly all today) , I achieved the lowest latency ever 
with that distribution.

Mailinglist is

http://lad.linuxaudio.org/subscribe/lau.html

List with loads of sound applications:

http://linux-sound.org

Cheers,

Malte


-------------
Malte Steiner
http://www.block4.com
media art + development

now available:
Minicomputer softwaresynthesizer for Linux
http://minicomputer.sourceforge.net/


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