<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">As an OS X user who has also messed around with linux here and there I have to say that as much as I'd love to give up buying over-priced apple products, it just seems a too scary a jump for me to invest in a PC to run linux at this point.<div><br></div><div>The funny thing is that I'm actually using only ardour for mixing and Audacity for editing. I did buy a load of commercial software a few years ago (e.g. PT, dp, Peake) and only recently chucked them all away to free some HD space, as I realised that I never ever use them! The only commercial software that I cannot have enough of is MaxMsp, this alone is enough to persuade me to stick with os x.</div><div><br></div><div>Recently I installed Ubuntu on an old PC and built Ardour 2. I have to say that it was a very smooth process and everything built without error. Ardour seems faster there as well (despite the rubbish computer). I am more or less ready to move to ubuntu (and replace MaxMsp with PD) but the problems are:</div><div><br></div><div>a- the lack of easy-to-install drivers for external sound-cards</div><div><br></div><div>b- the lack of guarantee that the OS will actually work with my hardware (e.g. the Ubuntu system that I have crashes every hour or so and I have to restart the computer, this is hardware related I'm sure).</div><div><br></div><div>[most importantly] c- the lack of surround mixing plug-ins and support. I find that for my purposes AMB is not really suitable since it is not exactly intuitive or easy to set up. </div><div><br></div><div>I find that not having a surround-capable system is a big big drawback for the non-hobbyist. I know that surround is limited and has many many problems, but so does MIDI (which I never use): this has not stopped Ardour developers from implementing MIDI in Ardour 3 ;-)</div><div><br></div><div>Now once ardour includes a usable built-in surround panner (or when linux starts supporting the format) I will seriously consider moving to linux for good. Currently I'm doing multichannel mixing with Ardour on OSX with an external plug-in, which works perfectly well. The mentioned plug-in is free and open source but AU only :-(</div><div><br></div><div>However, if I have a choice between staying on OSX and not using Ardour, and moving to linux + Ardour, I shall choose the latter! Thank god I don't have to produce 5.1 projects for a living though or logic it would have to be (ouch!).</div><div><br></div><div>Sorry for the rant as always...</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Peiman<br><div><br><div><div>On 11 Aug 2010, at 11:20, <a href="mailto:ardour-users-request@lists.ardour.org">ardour-users-request@lists.ardour.org</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">Message: 7<br>Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:19:06 +0000 (GMT)<br>From: david headon <<a href="mailto:davidheadonuk@yahoo.co.uk">davidheadonuk@yahoo.co.uk</a>><br>To: Simon Wise <<a href="mailto:simonzwise@gmail.com">simonzwise@gmail.com</a>>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:ardour-users@lists.ardour.org">ardour-users@lists.ardour.org</a><br>Subject: [Ardour-Users] The future?<br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:666279.67747.qm@web26304.mail.ukl.yahoo.com">666279.67747.qm@web26304.mail.ukl.yahoo.com</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"<br><br>Simon makes a number of good points in this post.<br>Ubuntu Studio,<br>64 Studio,<br>and APODIO<br><br>are all now being based around Ubuntu [ unstable - testing ]<br>repositories.<br>I'm using straight Ubuntu with various repos enabled, to allow 'non-free' codecs<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>and other attributes necessary for media production.<br>I find package management under Ubuntu convenient, but not perfect.<br>As a long time fan of 'straight' Debian, i have enjoyed the relatively<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>un-contrived aspect of logging in as 'root' for administration.<br>It is a bit bothersome to me that i must utilise 'sudo-' for admin under Ubuntu,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>but in recent years, the proliferation of admin scripts on the net has made<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>tedious tasks quite painless.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br><br><br>I guess, we gain and lose in equal measure.<br>If i were running web/php/sql servers, it would be straight 'stable' Debian all<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>the way,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br><br><br>whereas, my desktop needs and multimedia work (ie, most of what i need to do )<br>have benefited from the Ubuntu community and it's relative merits.<br><br>Ardour/Jack users from the Gentoo or SuSe community, are there any advantages to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>running a system on these platforms?<br>Mandriva? i am considering 'all comers' for my next multimedia box<br>(building as we speak),<br>BUT, I'd love to keep the initial setup time to a minimum...<br><br>I keep coming back to Ubuntu-<br><br>I'm very keen to hear other ideas and ways of working!<br><br>thanks to Paul and all the members of this list for years of fascinating growth<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>and learning.<br><br>I dearly want to fine the optimum system for running Ardour so that i can, with<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>total confidence, begin to utilise Jack/Ardour commercially as a production<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>tool for my clients.<br>The 'next step' might allow me to contribute financially to the Ardour project,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>and be a 'non-hobbyist' user!<br><br>thanks-<br><br>dav=-0</span></blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>