Linux: It's Not Just For Computer Geeks Anymore

bongman

bongman

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Linux: It's Not Just For Computer Geeks Anymore
http://www.keyboardmag.com/story.asp?sectioncode=29&storycode=17973

OPEN SOURCE:
Software is open-source when its source code is available for anyone to see, under an agreement that users can change it however they see fit, as long as they pass along the same rights to future users. Think of Wikipedia: Anyone can contribute, but no one can claim copyright or earn royalties on content they've submitted there.

FREE:
Open source aficionados distinguish two meanings of this word: “free as in speech” and “free as in beer.” Linux and Ardour are free in both senses. You can read and change the source code (which is like an act of speech, since a programming language is a language that can be used for personal and creative expression), and you can download software without paying anything for it. Pirated commercial software, on the other hand, is free only in the latter sense, and unlike software for Linux, illegally so.


Hexter
Yamaha DX7 emulator that can load most DX7 patch bank files
dssi.sourceforge.net/hexter.html

Rosegarden
Multitrack audio and MIDI sequencer with score notation
www.rosegardenmusic.com

Rtsynth
plucked-string modeling synth
www.linux-sound.org/rtsynth/
 
Most audio software still doesn't support linux. And my main office is having a nightmare with linux. They decided to switch totally to linux some time ago. Since then, it has been nothing but nightmare. I've always have trouble opening attachments when they send me an attachment via email (since I'm using Windows). Once they updated linux and all printers stopped working, including all USB drives. Recently, we were supposed to be having a teleconference via Skype and it didn't work because of linux.

My colleagues there is complaining all the time about not able to access emails etc. If you ask me, linux is a nightmare!
 
Good morning Cheez !!!
What are you doing early in the morning on Labour Day ???

I think the problem with Linux is it's opensource with a few vendors distibuting the OS and it's not yet standardized.

In the situation you mentioned, I believe it's not wise to change
the entire office computer system to Linux; but if you use Linux
wisely for certain application, it can still serve well.

Of course the user must have some good knowledge of the OS.
In all, to use Linux is the freeware it comes with and it's cheaper,
and it's able to run on older PCs.
 
Our IT guy is pretty good. Linux is free, but my feeling is that the time wasted trying to get things to work is not worth the free price tag (eg: my recent teleconference, which ended with me on a cell phone on my end talking to 4 people over the other end, and they had to put me on speakerphone - and that's really expensive since we are 400km away and not in the same city). Some things cannot be measured by dollars and cents. Even OpenOffice has it's problems - like the perpetual inability to open the documents in other plarforms (ie Microsoft Office). So when distributing important documents, we often get into the problem when the receiving end cannot open the file - and it's very frustrating when we need the document urgently (like agendas for meetings etc). I'm using Microsoft Office (Windows) and I couldn't open it; my other colleague in another city is using Mac and he couldn't open it either. And the person using Openoffice made sure she saved it in multiple formats - still cannot open!

By the way, today's Digital Times has something on Opensource platforms. Totally biased. The writer only seems to know about Mozilla firefox and Openoffice. He kept harping about Firefox, like the entire reason for the existence of linux is firefox. I would say - change the entire Straitstimes PCs into linux and see whether he will write the article in the same tone...

Labour Day? It's just a day when workers have to work more! That's why I'm still working today!
 
Looks like you are always the first to answer my posting when it's a public holiday !? How hard and how much you work I believe it depends on yourself.

I can write postings easily becos during my night duties when jobs are done,
I can sit in front of the PC to do my own things.

It's true that a lot of time are wasted when the IT guy tries to get PC fixes irregardless it's Windows or Linux. My CEO was trying to promote Sun computers client Sun Ray a few years ago and he asked the secretary and receptionist to use Sun office star; so end up lots of time wasted to solve compatibility problems with Windows platform mail and Microsoft office.
 
linux

Hi

I have personally used linux and deployed linux server. No complaints from my customers. I feel is the kind of applications you are using for it. Linux is good considering that you do not need to pay for licence fees. I still go for open source

www.mithn.com
 
wah..hahah i just thought i would post this article on soft, since it's a good read and explains a few things well, and one of the few articles concentrating on music production with OSS which the layman would understand.

Linux on the Desktop has been climbing ever since the introduction of Ubuntu Linux. If we talk about content creation, it has only proved superior as a UNIX platform for 3D graphics and real-time video after SGI's IRIX. For music production, there were quite a number of projects which started a long time ago but due to the nature of Linux distribution, it's never been that significant to point out a certain type of dedicated platform.

After the year 2000 milestone the number of professional music production done with OSS have increased well. One has to note that due to certain monopolies of certain IT industries, hardware manufacturers and software vendors have payed very little attention to the practical advantage of OSS, hence the so-called lack of support and software. It is not the operating system that is limited in terms of what it has to offer, but it is because of the ignorance of the people in such industries. They chose to give in to monopoly, and they still do.

I have spent the past one year deploying Linux DAWs, finding the right combination of hardware and software, and trying to troubleshoot problems which could arise for someone lacking the knowledge of operating systems. My experience has been both good and bad, but so far it's more to the good side. Since Gentoo Linux released its 2006.0 version, professional audio has become popular due to the fact that a Gentoo system can be customized very well to suit the machine. I now have a Gentoo DAW in the works, with real-time kernel and pro-audio optimizations.

One new kid on the block not mentioned in this article is JackLab Linux and it is by far the best in my opinion. It is still in BETA stages, but it is stable enough to actually get your work done. One needn't know much about computer hardware nor operating systems, if you know Windows, you wouldn't have any problem with this.

Linux, OSS, and Free Software have come a long way. Now it's no longer a question of what works and what is there, but what to choose. Many companies have shifted to open-source UNIX like GNU/Linux and Solaris/OpenSolaris, not only because it's a cheaper alternative but also because you have alot more advantages by NOT being locked in. MacOS is known for its content creation and professional music production, and I credit that to its UNIX and BSD roots although the OS has its own type of end-user lock-in. You wouldn't get anything less by working with another UNIX-derived platform such as Linux. Open-source and Free Software have also become more political, and people are now questioning the current freedom they have in terms of using software. Vendor lock-in is a bad thing, for both individuals and societies. Many have been so accustomed to the way Microsoft and proprietary companies have introduced computing that they cannot adapt to anything different.

I personally have been using Linux as workstation and desktop platforms for more than a year. Since I got into it I have never regretted my dive into the community. I am a graphics designer and 3D animator, my work gets done with Blender, Inkscape, GIMPShop and a few others. I don't have much experience with music production, I'm just a simple musician and hobbyist so I cannot say much on the technical side. I also deploy operating systems including M$ Windows and servers freelance, and do abit of coding. I'm a hardware nut and also a gamer, but I use Linux 90% of the time. 10%, it sadly belongs to gaming on Windows (and you would hear this as the primary reason why Linux is not being adopted large-scale) :lol:
 
Linux for DAW - for it to be widely accepted, I feel it will take at least 3-4 years. But technology for DAW software and softsynths are developing so quickly, I doubt Linux can keep up with it. There are reasons why hollywood studios don't use Linux. I also wonder how many studios around the world uses Linux. So far, I know of none, but I may be wrong. If there are, they must be the very very small minority (<1%). It's difficult to get hardware drivers and support for audio applications, not to mention that almost none of DAW plugins support Linux. The article above did not mention how stable Linux DAW is. For DAW - one crash is a total disaster. We cannot afford a single crash or hang.

As for office moving into Linux, I have no doubt since our main office did that some time ago. The main reason is not having more options (I feel that's the opposite). The main reason is cost. You save a lot of money. But not many people are happy. The system is well-known (to all of us from first-hand experience) to be unstable with certain hardware and software. And it has a habit of giving trouble when things need to be done urgently. Must be some kind of consipiracy going on. It saved a lot of money - but the time lost is not something that can be calculated in dollars and cents.

Linux is one of those things. Either you love it, or you hate it. It will be hard to find people somewhere in between. There may be people working on opensource DAW software. By the time they get it to work, Logic, Cubase and Sonar would have developed 3 more new versions. And softsynths/softsamplers would have gone further and still be unsupported.
 
OK. This thread made me do some thinking and googling. Here's what I found - and if others have more info, please post!

1. DAW applications.
(a) Rosegarden. This appears to be the most developed with notation and plug-in support. Latest version 1.5.1. There appears to be 153 unfixed known bugs at the moment.

(b) Ardour. Latest version 2.0.2. Doesn't do plugins quite well at this stage.

(c) Upcoming potentials (still in alpha stage): Wired and Muse.

2. Samplers.
Only one and it supports only Giga. It's simply called Linuxsampler. It has about 22 bugs at this stage.

OK. The challenge. Anybody with a Linux system willing to try these out and tell us how stable they are? They are free!
 
Well.. I think its not about the versions.
Most DAWs and Sequencers are already very feature packed.

To me Cubase SX2 an 3 aint very different from each other.

The most common complaint people have is why have so many new versions of different software. Users have to constantly buy ne versions and updates and all that kinda nonsense.


But for one, I think Linux is not DAW friendly. i heard its not programmed for multi-media uses. I got excited for a brief monent wen I read about BeOS, BLAZING FAST for multimedia apps and FREE, but was quickly disappointed to know that its been discontinued.

The best thing is that Linux is free, the sucky suck part is that you gotta make it work yourself in order for it to truely work the way you want, so not many people can afford to learn how to do that.

I think Linux should aim to make itself really easy to configure, and compaitable and more stable across a much bigger multitude of hardware(especially USB devices) for it to be truely a hit.

I'mure the geeks wouldnt want that. It would shatter their throne
 
Seekz, you're right. DAW software will not differ much in 2 versions. But in 3 versions, there should be some obvious improvements (hence why I don't upgrade every version). Eg. Logic was pretty much the same until they suddenly came up with the freeze function for plug-ins in version 6. I remember it was such a big deal that it was reported all over forums and magazines. Then suddenly, Cakewalk and Cubase had to follow suit to come up with freeze as well. Also, Cakewalk Sonar is pretty much the same except for some nice GUI changes. Then in their latest version, they suddenly came up with this new Audiosnap feature. This is going to spread to other platforms quickly, I'm sure.

So, once in a few versions, you do get some revolutionary ideas and useful new technology coming out. I feel it's something like 3 versions for one groundbreaking technology to appear. In 2 versions - it's just nice user interface changes and minor things.
 
Hollywood? Their renderfarms and artists use Linux :) Small work like texturing and basic modelling are done on Macs, but the final rendering and polishing meshes/modelling take place in a big pool of Linux workstations. Star Wars is a famous example. Like i said, when it comes to servers and 3d graphics, Linux is well established at this point of time. The so-called problem is Desktop usage, and only that. DAW, if one wants Linux to work that way, it will be a perfect system.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/5472 - Linux in Hollywood, quite some time ago.
http://www.linuxtoday.com/high_performance/2003100201126OSBZHE - Another, also few years ago.

JackLab Linux never crashed any apps or whatever. I didn't do any tweaking, and for BETA it is near perfect out-of-the-box. Ardour and Hydrogen are the apps I use often and I can safely say neither has ever crashed. Plugins, well yes some plugins do not respond sometimes. For Rosegarden, same case, but I cannot verify since I do not use it extensively. Currently you are right to say it is still not ready for full-time DAW usage, but as an insider I can tell you one thing. Development and progress have been made, alot, recently. Widely accepted? I agree, it will take much more than just 4 years to be widely accepted. Not programmed for multi-media usage? Linux is modular. You can programme it to do anything, you don't have to be a programmer either. It is not about being programmed to do n task(s), the only factor that is a barrier is hardware and software vendors. Microsoft and Apple pay certain hardware and software (like games for instance) big money to bow down to them, irregardless of how us consumers benefit. A hardware vendor may not bother to write drivers for Linux, and that's why we have the so-called "limitations" and "unfriendliness".

Office usage, with the rise of Canonical/Ubuntu, Red Hat and Novell/Suse, currently there has been a big jump in migration. A few big corporates have done it. Vendors like Dell, HP are pre-installing Linux on Desktops/Laptops and not just workstations/servers, both business and home models (not all, 2-4 each). Linux and Open source have no conspiracies. They are there to free us from giving in to modern Tsars and dictators. Early years of Linux, Desktop usage was not a primary concern. That is one of the bigger reasons why it is still not "mature" for mass usage. Some important figures in the IT industry had realised the harm of proprietary software and money-hungry corporates. Software is there to let us do our job, not feed already-well-fed "businessmen" with our money.

Btw, ALSA is not exactly ASIO, it's just the base sound system but the article didn't make it clear. It is not in opposition to ASIO, that is a big misunderstanding. ALSA is the primary sound system in Linux after the Open Sound System, which is now deprecated. JACK is the one for pro audio and you may say it's the alternative to ASIO, and the only option when it comes to DAW. Low-latency was never an issue on Linux as the kernel can be optimized for such tasks. This article is only a highlight for what's to come next. It is not saying people should jump in, but it is suggesting that Linux will soon become a full-time option. DAW applications may not support Linux now, but when one OSS coder can write 130 different drivers, pretty soon that fact will change. Adobe has been considering Linux big-time now, and Photoshop may no longer be Mac/Win-only. That is just to show you an example that truth happens :lol:

Cheez, I am sorry to hear about your office. However, it is important to note that there are few good, commercial technicians who are well-established in the Linux Desktop segment, in Singapore. If this is a recent story, it is a surprise. The thing is, Linux is no longer the tweak-and-don't-sleep sorta thing. It is already a proven alternative, like pop-in-and-say-hello. OpenOffice is fully compatible with MSOffice documents and vice-versa. Linux and OSS coders/programmers are the cream of the crop, they try their very best. Maybe you yourself should give it a try, during your free time ;) I will gladly help you with anything related, and you can see for yourself whether you really think it's a nightmare. Seekz, Linux is already what you have stated as the requirements. If you don't mind, give Ubuntu/Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS, or Linux Mint a try. There are plenty of interesting things, and the important thing is that your job gets done.
 
When I said "not used in hollywood", I meant DAW purposes. I've read about their extensive usage in 3D etc. For DAW, no plugins or softsynths/softsamplers should crash.

However, I'm interested to hear about more about what you think of Ardour and Rosegarden. What's the latency like? Any CPU hogs? Which plug-ins do not work? Have you tried Linuxsampler?
 
You know, guttarlapiss, I actually bothered trying out linux, cos I HATE XP and the way microsoft do their business.

But I've only tried live distros. Tried Slax, DSL, PcOSlinux and Knoppix.
Why? Cos the biggest problem is filesystem. I dont want to have to format and repartition if I want to switch between Windows, yeah I know I can dualboot, but its still a hassle.

Microsoft coearced me into using Windows as a primary, due to your stated reasons, hardware/software bullying.

But anyway, back on track, I would ABSOLUTELY and seriously considern switching over to Linux if I can get it to work with my Wireless Intel BG2200 on my Dell inspiron. And I dont know jack about Linux to configure it to work.

So far the best distro is Slax for me, but the most functional is still PCosLinux, but even with their appget or something feature is still baffling for me, someone who wants to try.
 
hey! good to see people responding !!!

actually I always like unix base command as it has absolute
control by the user. you can kill processes and write scripts to
tailor made your own setup

but it's always the time factor when you are doing music,
should a musician be spending time on the IT aspect or
just focus on music ???
 
Hey Bongman, I've got a thought. Since musicians don't usually have time to spend on twiddling with IT espeically if they have a project right up the cornder (and their DAW crashes etc), there may be a market (although small) for an IT person to help them solve this problem. Think you can be this person?
 
seekz: u should try Ubuntu/Kubuntu now. it just works, really. Hell, u wanna install a Linux system on NTFS, it's possible! The Ubuntu community is so huge you can practically solve your problems within minutes, if any at all. There's Automatix for automagically making things work. PCLinuxOS has gained as much popularity as Ubuntu. SLAX, being derived from Slackware the most difficult of all deployments but the wisest and most mature, I'm not surprised u prefer it for a LiveCD. Now there is Ubuntu Studio, specially made for musicians by musicians.

Things are more "point-and-click" since recently, and they just work. For example there's no barrier when you cross files between NTFS, FAT, and Linux/UNIX filesystems due to the already-stable and 99% bug-free ntfs-3g driver. All your MS documents, mp3 files, wmv movies can be used from within Linux, and can be removed also. Now let's talk about wireless, a big issue. No, not anymore. The Linux kernels from now will feature more support for wireless/wlan/wifi. Even my shitty broadcom works out-of-the-box. Ubuntu is also a LiveCD, so you should try it and see if anything doesn't work. Dell chose that distribution for a reason.

cheez: ahh i see. well yeah, it's understood, Linux as full-time DAW = not there yet. Yes there are crashes, that's why it's not 100% ready yet. Latency for an untuned and fresh audio Linux distribution is 3ms. However, these distributions come tweaked with real-time kernels (u can't do this on MAC or Win), and 2ms is the norm with JACK ( http://jackaudio.org/ ). Personally with Ardour and Hydrogen running, JACK monitor gives me an output of 1.2 to 1.5ms max. I have other things tweaked too, like HDD. "Xruns" are a thing to watch out for, and it is used to basically benchmark the current stability of audio processing and latency. I get very few such Xruns over a long period.

One thing I would like to disagree on is that Linux will not get there. When u talk about technology, yes ur view is perfectly sane, but saying Linux and Open-source will lag behind is a fallacy. There are so many good bedroom hackers and coders that they give commercial programmers of proprietary software a hell of a show. This is growth we are talking about, and different software grow at different levels. Technology may progress alot in the next 4 years, but the Open-source community can progress 4 times faster bringing it on par.

I use Rosegarden less often, because I don't work with sequencers and MIDI alot. The only times I need to use it is when I want new accompaniments or get drum samples to edit, but after that Hydrogen takes over ( http://www.hydrogen-music.org ). It doesn't come with a software synth, so it uses external soft synths like TiMidity (also the prefered MIDI system in Linux). Plugins like DSSI ( http://dssi.sourceforge.net/ ) and VST (through dssi-vst) pose no problems, as far as reviews go. VST instruments fit in cleanly, but on occasions did not respond in my experience. I prefer to stick to native DSSI. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=104932&group_id=4932&func=browse = many bugs are not significant. Also a good read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Studio_Technology under "GNU/Linux Support".

Ardour. Ardour2 is great improvement, many bugs are fixed and new features have been brought in. One thing I want to highlight though, is that Ardour is a pro-audio app. It is not for the home musician (which i mostly belong to), but rather it is truely professional software. The interface needs getting used to, but for any professional that is just part and parcel of his/her career. I have no problems with LADSPA, I don't know why it "doesn't do plugins well". The problem comes when you go into VST(i). Some free VST plugins & instruments sound really bad, and they work ok with the LADSPA bridge. Commercial ones, those which sound good and you really like, fail. I had 3/10 free and about 2/5 commercial VST plugins & instruments failing. In Mr James' words roughly, a professional musician also needs to be apt with IT to be able to deliver his content. That also means u may spend time on these matters, because I'm sure it will benefit u somehow. Alot of things come into play when ur a professional musician, and one has to balance it out.

Is Ardour ready for the big time? Perhaps not quite yet, but its road map is clearly headed there, and the remaining trip won't take long. I believe that it will be only a short time before Ardour starts raising eyebrows in the mainstream commercial audio software world. Ardour already has been used to record and mix entire CD projects, and more users are reporting success with Ardour in their own recording projects. I expect to be making a lot more music with Ardour. Feel free to stop by my site and check the occasional results.
Click to expand...

edit: if you have a Mac, u can already try Ardour with JACK. Hydrogen is available for Windows also, though buggy.
 
I just installed UbuntuStudio 7.04 today. It's a prepackaged Ubuntu FF version with audio/video/gfx packaging. Sweet. Was fiddling with the OS for quite a bit. Pretty impressed.

However, some related issues that still haven't been ironed out (so you might want to note):

1. No GUI for GRUB. Google Startup Manager if you are like me and prefer GUIs to configure GRUB. (I dual boot WinXP + Ubuntu).
2. Manual installation of MS Truetype fonts. Unfortunately Linux fonts are just not as nice as the Windows equivalents. There're guides online to install those.
3. mp3 support for amarok, the mp3 player. You need to install libxine-extras (or sth like that) for backward compatibility.
4. Manual configuration of auto-mounting, unlike Mandriva. Again, rather technical.
5. No GUI installation interface. Actually, no biggie, it's more straightforward to install Ubuntu than Windows (Yes, serious!)

Happy tweaking,
Raymond
 
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