
A musician tells his story of switching from Mac to Ubuntu - dolugen
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/08/linux-music-workflow-switching-from-mac-os-x-to-ubuntu-with-kim-cascone/
======
mitjak
_A musician and, more importantly, a computer geek tells his story of
switching from Mac to Ubuntu_

His story, while informative, is nowhere near close to that of a typical
musician or even audio geek. It's not the platform but the software running on
it that counts. The first thing Apple did when they bought Emagic and, as a
result, Logic Pro was to kill the product on Windows knowing well users would
switch to OS X just to use their favourite tool (why wouldn't they given the
$1200->$499 price drop and a major feature boost in Logic Studio).

Most musicians nowadays want more than the ability to record and play back
audio tracks. What about the digital audio workstation (DAW) choice on Linux;
the virtual instruments and FX plugins; MIDI editing and automation; a UI
intuitive and simple enough to use at a live show etc. Good software in the
creative market seems to take years to build but the user base is so loyal it
takes massive effort to get users to switch. There is a reason most software
used in the studio is decades old (see Cubase or Logic, for instance:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_Pro#History>). There is also a reason why
GarageBand had significant time dedicated to it at the iPad keynote. Musicians
with computers tend to be geeks to a degree, but at the end of the day they
have music to compose and perform, and the less time they have to spend on
software and setting it up the better.

Basically, Linux not being embraced among the musicians is the same story of
why you don't see very many people jump ship from Adobe Photoshop in favour of
GIMP.

~~~
tintin
_"Most musicians nowadays want more than the ability to record and play back
audio tracks."_ This sounds like you can only record and play back audio on
Linux. A very false statement. Renoise is available for Linux and can be used
in live sets. Pure Data is widely used on Linux and also used in live sets.
There are FX-stacks, MIDI trackers/composers, with Jack you can connect
whatever you want. Qtractor is becoming more mature. Ardour is very good.
There are a lot of musicians using Linux these day's.

~~~
mitjak
I'm pointing out recording and playing back tracka because the author of the
article emphasizes it as one of the main use cases.

------
bryanh
I've spent a lot of time dabbling with digital audio (especially recording)
and my limited experience with Linux audio setups were difficult to say the
least.

Now, this may be changing with Ubuntu Studio, but unfortunately a majority of
commercial hardware is still strictly Windows/Mac (and sometimes spotty at
that). Our mostly self-recorded/produced/mixed album
(<http://glasscannonband.com/albums/the-chill-room>) was done in Windows 7
with Sonar with a Firepod 24bit firewire interface. It wasn't perfect, but _it
worked_.

I couldn't imagine walking into a recording session with a Linux setup and
running into a bug (I experienced dozens upon dozens while experimenting with
Linux) and trying to sort it all out while the band waits.

Again, I think this is just a time vs. money thing. The post even alludes to
this ($3000 upgrade vs. $600).

If you wanna do digital recording, save yourself the hassle: go Mac or Windows
with the wonderful REAPER software (from the same dudes that developed
WinAmp!).

~~~
brusch
I've recorded probably about 30 songs in Ardour on linux and probably had one
crash at all.

Best thing is to start with a distribution with audio focus (I'm using AVLinux
<http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html>). Then the base system is set up the
correct way for your hardware.

~~~
bryanh
I've never had it crash, just odd bugs where this or that wouldn't work or
wouldn't load. You know, the irritating stuff... ;-)

------
brusch
I just wanted to respond to all the hostility / negativity towards audio on
linux.

I've started recording Audio with a refurbished PC (desktop from the company I
was working with) with Ardour and Jack. Mixed everything at home in Ardour on
a OS X system. Later changed that system to a linux based system and I am
happy with it.

I've started with ardour so I never had the problem of "missing plugins" or
VST plugins I "had to use". I really like the idea of having an inexpensive
"recording computer" in my rehearsal room and having the beefier machine at
home to mix the recorded stuff. For the last recording I've update the
recording machine to a "newer" refurbished model and it still works great.

The linuxdsp plugins are great sounding plugins (<http://www.linuxdsp.co.uk/>)
and there is even a commercial variant of ardour - the Harrison mixbus
([http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_...](http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=108&Itemid=42)).

There are some things going on in the linux audio world - and they may fit
your bill.

Ardour doesn't do Midi in the current version - but this may be fixed with the
upcoming version (I don't do Midi - so no problem for me)

------
Bud
This guy's talking about how his G4 Powerbook started 'showing signs of age'
during 2009.

Well, yeah. That would stand to reason.

~~~
jarek
Ti or alu? A 2005 laptop showing signs of age in 2009 is kinda weak.

Signed, an eight-year-old Thinkpad user.

~~~
Bud
He didn't say it was a 2005 version; it could have been a 2001 version for all
we know.

Also, I owned and used a G4 PowerBook from 2002 til 2010, when I sold it to a
friend, who is still using it. I bow to nobody in my respect for the longevity
of Apple's laptops lately. Just saying, if he had it for 4-8 years and was
touring with it, yeah, it's kinda not shocking that it might show its age a
bit.

You think a low-end plastic Dell (which will be far slower than the Mac he'd
get) will beat an Apple over 4+ years as a touring musician? I don't.

It'd be nice, as an aside, if there were more dates and details in this story.
Wonder why he didn't include those.

------
wtn
$600 Linux vs $3000 Mac upgrade? The programs he now runs on Ubuntu are all
available on OS X.

The more reasonable framing would be $600 Dell netbook (what he ended up
buying) vs a low-end Mac laptop option.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Exactly. If all the author wanted was an affordable notebook to replace his >5
year old PowerBook, then he could've bought a $1,200 MacBook Pro [0], which
has FireWire800 and Thunderbolt ports. The low-end MacBook Pro is far more
capable than his old PowerBook, and it wouldn't cost him anywhere near $3,000.

Regardless of which OS you'll choose to run on it, I doubt a Dell Mini 9
netbook will be a reliable mobile workstation. The author indicated that his
income is dependent on him having a functional notebook. One would think he
would reserve at least $300 a year for hardware.

I'm left wondering whether the Dell Mini 9 will serve him for the next 2.5
years. If not, then a MacBook Pro would've been cheaper.

[0] <http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs-13inch.html>

~~~
dolugen
He said that after trying Dell Mini 9, he bought Dell Studio 9.

------
Flankk
The operating system is irrelevant to any musician worth his salt. The
important thing is that you have a robust DAW that supports all the VST
plugins you use and does everything you need. Ardour is a laughing stock
compared to Logic, Live or FL. Last I checked, it hasn't even caught up to the
feature set of Garage Band, which is a stripped-down version of Logic designed
for 12-year-olds.

~~~
mitjak
_Garage Band, which is a stripped-down version of Logic designed for 12-year-
olds_

Hey there, speak for yourself. I like to think of GarageBand as Notepad for
music. Perfect balance of features just enough to jot down an idea or throw
together a loop. Logic Express and Pro then allow importing of GB projects so
the analogy tends to hold well.

------
th0ma5
to see what it was like, i wrote and recorded a whole CD on ubuntu
<http://sites.google.com/site/monorail42/> ... mostly with rosegarden. it was
sort of painful to do! i also used a set of python scripts called MMA to lay
out the song structures.

------
rorrr
I recently had to install Ubuntu for work. Before that I normally used Win7 at
home (+ unix shell at work via Putty).

Things that Ubuntu sucks at:

1) Power management. It really blows.

    
    
       a) My laptop keeps shutting down without any warning that the battery is low, and half the time Ubuntu doesn't even know whether my laptop is plugged or running off of battery.
    
       b) My laptop is blasting the CPU cooler at full power, all the time. Under Win it's only audible when I do some crazy calculations.
    

2) No Photoshop replacement. I'm into photography and doing a lot of RAW
processing. GIMP is not even close to Photoshop. There are lots of people
online who try to convince you otherwise, but it's all bullshit.

3) Hardware acceleration seems to be often off in random places with various
plugins.

4) I use a second language keyboard layout, and I'm used to Ctrl+Shift
shortcut. Coincidentally, Ctrl+Shift+arrow buttons are awesome for text
selection. Windows understands that. Under Ubuntu if you set keyboard layout
key to Ctrl+Shift, the selection stops working.

5) Putty vs Ubuntu terminal. I'm used to Ctrl+C = copy, "mouse selection" =
copy, and "right mouse click" = paste. It's extremely useful. Just doesn't
work under Ubuntu.

6) Lack of file organization. I never know where programs are installed, where
logs go, where configuration files are, and why they have to be in different
places.

7) Little things like "Backspace button" = "go back" not working in Chrome.
Like touchpad freeze while I'm typing (it just randomly stops working, even
though the ckeckbox is checked in settings somewhere).

I realize I'm a Linux newbie (even though I've been using shell commands for a
decade), so probably most of these problems can be resolved with some
workarounds. My point is that they should be resolved out of the box.

~~~
jerf
Ubuntu is great at power management (or, more accurately, Linux in general),
but if your laptop isn't supported for whatever reason Ubuntu is just screwed
and there's nothing it can do.

5: The problem is actually that there are _two_ copy and paste buffer in X
Windows. There's the mouse selection buffer, which is copied on any highlight
operation, and pasted via right mouse button, and the "conventional
clipboard", populated by an explicit copy and pasted via explicit paste. This
is further screwed up by the fact that few programmers have understood this
and a large number of programs have tried to "fix" what they perceived as bugs
in the clipboard in various horrific ways. See [1]. In particular, it seems
like the programs that correctly deselect text when somebody else grabs
primary has been going down lately. I've had a pretty good run with this
actually working as designed on KDE lately, but recent Gnomes seem to be going
back to mucking with it and I've been having trouble, and Chromium itself also
seems dubious.

3 and 7 sounds like more poorly-supported hardware. Unfortunately, your Linux
experience with proprietary hardware with no released documentation will
always be bad. The situation is ever-improving but still not perfect. It is
possible and maybe even likely your laptop will never work properly under
Linux.

[1]: <http://www.jwz.org/doc/x-cut-and-paste.html>

~~~
dman
I agree about the well supported hardware bit. In my experience buying
Thinkpads is near optimal for using linux since so many other hackers use them
that any bugs get fixed quickly.

