Linux users on AK?

[davidhun]

After I busted @ducati_EL34 's chops a bit about Arch, I got to wondering how many AKers use Linux on a regular basis. Seems like a natural fit for folks who like to "optimize" technology.

I use Ubuntu Studio at home on Mac Mini and an PreSonus AudioBox 96 interface for playback of streaming music, recording and general tomfoolery. I have some more "serious" homelab stuff for keeping up with emerging tech for work and generally keeping sharp.

Been dabbling in Unix/Linux since around 1992, but didn't start getting serious about it until the mid 2000's working for a storage VAR. Mostly dealing with enterprise deployments of Ubuntu now. And lately, god help me, AIX.

What all is your relationship with Linux or Unix? Do you use it in your audio world? Like talking shop? Whatevs. Hit reply.

 

[Brian1970]

I've been using Linux for about 25 years. Started with Red Hat - 5.2 I think? I mostly use Fedora now. For me it's the best balance of easy-to-use and up-to-date. I used Arch for quite a while and like it a lot but for the past few years, I just want a system that works without all the work. Also used Ubuntu, Mint, Debian and lots of others here and there. Once you get good at Linux, it doesn't matter what distro you use. You can usually make whatever is on your machine do what you need it to do.

Before linux I used Sun Sparcs with SunOS and Digital VAX's with VMX. I was a little sad when we moved to mostly Windows. We lost a lot of capability that was there in VMX especially. Users had to go from one VAX workstation that did everything to 3 or 4 windows machines per desk. I guess techically that still saved money at the time but it wasn't very elegant. Dabbled in some others along the way too.

 

[ducati_EL34]

After I busted @ducati_EL34 's chops a bit about Arch, I got to wondering how many AKers use Linux on a regular basis. Seems like a natural fit for folks who like to "optimize" technology.

I use Ubuntu Studio at home on Mac Mini and an PreSonus AudioBox 96 interface for playback of streaming music, recording and general tomfoolery. I have some more "serious" homelab stuff for keeping up with emerging tech for work and generally keeping sharp.

Been dabbling in Unix/Linux since around 1992, but didn't start getting serious about it until the mid 2000's working for a storage VAR. Mostly dealing with enterprise deployments of Ubuntu now. And lately, god help me, AIX.

What all is your relationship with Linux or Unix? Do you use it in your audio world? Like talking shop? Whatevs. Hit reply.

Are you referring to your obligatory Linux joke, posted awhile ago? If so, I did not find that to be busting my chops. I found it humorous and very true! I have no problem being a Linux snob.

I started using Linux in the late 90s, after there were sufficient quality drivers for things like video cards. In the early 90s, I was working in a university (IT support for the mechanical engineering college) and had internet access before all the plebs were granted access. so I had access to SGI and IBM RS6000 workstations running real Unix, and using an Apple computer at home. I even had a copy of their Unix. (The term Unix, is now just a trademark, owned by some company).

By the early 2000s I was working for a web hosting company and it was all Linux servers. It was a fun job. This was with Redhat Linux. Too bad the owner was bad at business, but I digress.

I grew tired of maintaining windows in all it various versions, and have been Mac OS and Linux ever since.

 

[xXDEATH666Xx]

I used Linux back in the early 90s during the IRC wars for programming eggdrop bots. Haven't needed it since

 

[davidhun]

Before linux I used Sun Sparcs with SunOS and Digital VAX's with VMX.

Same! Sorta. I needed an account on the VAX for something engineering related, but never used it. Most of my book-learnin' stuff was done on the Sparcstations, usually FORTRAN or circuit sim software, SPICE/Viewlogic.

 

[Brian1970]

Same! Sorta. I needed an account on the VAX for something engineering related, but never used it. Most of my book-learnin' stuff was done on the Sparcstations, usually FORTRAN or circuit sim software, SPICE/Viewlogic.

The place where I used them had a VAX at every desk. Needed a lot of horsepower. We even had a 1TB "hard drive" that was the size of a semi-trailer. That seemed like a ridiculous amount of storage at the time. Luckily about the time it started breaking down a lot it could be replaced with a couple racks of hard drives.

 

[LF240]

Back in 2014 I let Richard "GNU" Stallman sleep in my basement for a few nights while he was in town to give a speech at UGA. He was an interesting guest, to say the very least. At the time, I had recently replaced my main desktop's Debian distro with an Ubuntu flavor called Linux Lite. Needles to say, he did not approve.

Been using Linux Lite on the same system with no problems ever since.

 

[daveshel]

I have a lot of experience with Linux. I took a couple of Debian classes at a community college in 2002-3, and used Linux servers in various roles over the course of my career as a sys admin. At home I've built dozens of boxes trying out the various distributions, but never found one that I wanted to keep using. As much as I hate Microsoft, no Linux build can beat Windows when it comes to graphics.

 

[JediDude]

Only one peecee type computer (out of three), a laptop, rarely used, is running windows. The other two are running Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora Core). I was a Unix/Linux sys admin in a previuos life, so it's only natural for me. Plus, us unix guys would regularly rib the windows guys about server stability, uptime, not needing a universal windows solution, etc....

We always said that Unix/Linux OSes are user friendly; they're just selective about who they make friends with.

 

[felix_katze]

I've been using Ubuntu for a while now. No particular reason, but maybe I had Ubuntu studio for a while and then stuck with it. KDE looks quite good, but honestly almost any major distro is likely to be fine.

 

[davidhun]

We always said that Unix/Linux OSes are user friendly; they're just selective about who they make friends with.

I really feel this. Like my brain is really not wired to deal with Windows, which of course is definitely skewed by my largely Linux background. But I swear, anytime I've had to visit answers.microsoft.com, I've come away feeling hateful and definitely not finding the answer I was searching for. Stack Overflow and Server Fault ftw.

 

[felix_katze]

Once upon a time the only way to find answers in msdn was to ask the question in Google, but that has gotten worse over the last 7 years or so.

But the same with Linux. So many wonderful, well thought out answers to issues that just don't work for whatever reason.

I keep a document now of all commands I use to install and configure my system so I can go back and get everything as I want it again. Can probably script it if I really want. I also made my bash history have a stupidly large recycle point, 10,000 or something. Small things to make my life easier.

 

[1koolcat]

As part of my profession I've been supporting MS-WINDOWS machines for a LONG time. Looking for new challenges, I began playing around with various LINUX distros about 15 years starting with RED HAT and CENT OS. I branched out after several years to try MINT, ZORIN and a couple others.

More recently, I've been experimenting with LINUX LITE and VOLUMIO on older laptops and thin clients I've acquired here and there. About five years ago I setup my first media server using FREENAS which I have since replaced with a newer tower running TRUENAS.

Occasionally, my knowledge and comfort with the LINUX (and especially the CLI) has come in handy at my day job.

 

[chazix]

Are there any Linux distros that are known for long-term update-ability? I've been disappointed by my Elemental installation being no longer update-able. It seems funny for software to have a shorter useful life than hardware, but that's probably a personal bias.

Thanks!

 

[Brian1970]

Are there any Linux distros that are known for long-term update-ability? I've been disappointed by my Elemental installation being no longer update-able. It seems funny for software to have a shorter useful life than hardware, but that's probably a personal bias.

Thanks!

Are you asking about just updating without upgrading? If you just want updates, look for an LTS (Long Term Support) Distro like Ubuntu LTS. I don't think there's a reason to shy away from upgrades though. I've got several computers that have been running Fedora for 4-5 years with upgrades to the new version every 6 months. Those upgrades keep all your files and usually your settings too so practically there's not that big a difference.

 

[chazix]

Those upgrades keep all your files and usually your settings too so practically there's not that big a difference.

I must have missed, or misunderstood, that opportunity when I had it. I don't have any strong objection to upgrades (though maybe they don't always deserve to be called that ). I'll look into whether I can still try upgrading.

Thanks again!

 

[Brian1970]

I must have missed, or misunderstood, that opportunity when I had it. I don't have any strong objection to upgrades (though maybe they don't always deserve to be called that ). I'll look into whether I can still try upgrading.

Thanks again!

I'm not familiar with Elemental so maybe they're different but pretty much all the major distros let you upgrade versions without reinstalling from scratch.

 

[davidhun]

I'm not familiar with Elemental so maybe they're different but pretty much all the major distros let you upgrade versions without reinstalling from scratch.

I remember having some upgrade difficulties with Mint a long time ago.

I Googled Elemental OS upgrades, and it looks like there isn't an upgrade path between major releases . Insane.

 

[dly66]

Started with Linux someone gave me a second hand Powerbook G4 more than a decade ago Apple had quit supporting the operating system years before I set it up dual booting Lubuntu and MintPPC. I used it for a number of years until the internet was slowing it to a crawl. MintPPC was Debian based and Lubuntu is Ubuntu using the LXDE desktop environment. They ran and were stable supporting the old PowerPC CPU. The MintPPC developer fixed some issues with Debian that would cause it to lock up on the Apple hardware. Needed to enter a graphics command with live distro to ungarble the graphics in Lubuntu. Took some experimentation to make them work on the G4.

Two Win7 desktops and Win10 laptop have MX Linux 21 (Debian 11) dual booting on them. My web browsing is done in Linux. Tried Win10 update on Win7 desktop before and it was doing odd things plus Win10 updating can take a while. The Dell laptop has had its issues with Win10 and is more stable with Linux. Linux is keeping the first gen Core i3 and second gen Core i5 desktops going a while longer. Still need Windows periodically to step into it for peripheral compatibility such as using the scanners on the printers but Linux can use them as printers. I also periodically use some software designed for the Windows platforms.

Usually run the LTS versions that will be supported for a number of years, usually can go two years or more before major upgrade requiring reinstall. Usually try a couple of flavors of Linux usually one or two will stick out and will keep using them. In the past usually tried a Debian and a Ubuntu distro on some hardware combos one side had things working but other side had problems might be unusable. Could run into that a lot back in the Pentium 4 days.

Have made use of Mint, Zorin, Puppy, and a few others on different hardware in the past.

 

[petehall347]

been running ubuntu since it started . first dual booted it with windows then did a virus scan and it said windows was a virus so i deleted it .
i do still dual boot with win 7 on my laptop for car diagnostics as those programs only work with windows .