As I have mentioned before in previous entries (Thinking of Linux: Part 1 – Part 2), I am definitely ready to move to Linux. I want to get away from the proprietary monsters that are Windows and Mac OS X and support the open source community. I already use Firefox, Camino, OpenOffice.org, Adium and a number of other different open source applications and I love them.
The only problem is that Linux is not ready for me and what I need to do with my computer. The lack of support for any of the software I use to produce my music is the only deterrent at this point. I have done extensive research on the internet — including asking around on forums — as well as talking to some people that I know who run Linux and have not been able to find anything viable to the commercial applications I use now (Reason and ProTools).
Naturally I have found several open source music applications that run on Linux such as Audacity that could replace ProTools, however their feature sets are nowhere near as robust as ProTools’. And then of course there is Reason which, as far as I can tell, is entirely unique. It is a program that virtualizes a DJ rack. With Reason it’s even possible to hit the tab button and turn the rack around to reveal virtual cables which can be moved around between the different virtual machines for any sort of complex wiring schemes you might need. There are lots of smaller applications that combined almost do what Reason does, but without the lack of coordination between the programs, they are entirely useless to me.
Then there’s Wine. Several people have recommended Wine to me, but I can’t say that I would entirely trust it. When I have both ProTools and Reason open and working together through the magic of ReWire, there is often times barely enough processing power available on the native platform for both of the applications — regardless of whether I am running them on Mac OS X or Windows. Not to mention there seems to be atrocious audio errors and other compatibility errors that come with Wine. Another issue that I’m not sure Wine could solve would be the hardware compatibility problem. I use ProTools-specific hardware alongside my computer to record my music and there are no Linux drivers available for it.
Several people have also recommended that I just partition my harddrive and run a dual-boot machine. Then I could boot into Windows whenever I need to to use ProTools and Reason. The problem I see with this is a simple question. What would be the point of running Linux at all then when Windows does everything else that I need such as internet, e-mail, instant messaging, word processing, etc as well as working natively with the applications I use? If I were to take that route, it seems to me that I shouldn’t bother wasting the harddrive space by creating a dual-boot machine.
Basically what I’m saying in a very long-winded way is that I would absolutely love to move to Linux, but I just don’t think it would be a good idea to until the applications I need and use quite often are supported.
Use the force dude,duel boot…Use Linux for everything except the programs you can’t use it for.
its times like these i would have recomended osx, if it could, legaly, be used on any hardware…
use vmware
Mate, google for Ardour2, it is supposed to be a great pro tools alternative if you use it with a low-latency kernel and use JACK for audio.
@pt: he fears performance hits, so virtualization is not an option.
Alex, I see your point, and would love to help you, but I can’t. The thing is, everytime I hear complains like yours (“I wish I had this program for Linux”) I think that this is a reason NOT to use WINDOWS. Why? Because it’s the monopoly of MS that provokes the effect of having Windows-only programs (or Windows and Mac-only).
@isilanes: I see your point and I agree with it, however, the problem that I face is that I have no other choice if I want to keep using these programs…
Specialized hardware is unlikely to work in Wine, even if Linux has drivers for it.
The point of dual-booting would be that you could actually find out what does and does not work and how well you can deal with the things that don’t work (and you can gradually work on improving what you can do in Linux without taking a huge risk). There will always be things that work in Windows but do not work in Linux because they are different systems; the reverse is also true. If you already know you can’t live without a software/hardware combination that you already know you can’t run in Linux, there may be no point in trying it.
At the same time, if you really think of Windows as a superset of Linux (Windows does everything you want, and Linux only does some of the things you want), you’re probably better off staying with Windows. It’s not that much more expensive, and if you look hard enough you can usually find free, quality software on that platform (portableapps.com and software comparison lists on Wikipedia are good for that).
I dual-boot and use Linux most of the time because there are many features I like that are on Linux but not Windows, and booting into Windows prevents me from using them effectively (I do rely on Wine and VirtualBox on occasion). I don’t know many people who get away with not having a copy of Windows at all so I don’t think saving money is a reasonable goal here. You should only want to switch to Linux if you think it’s better.
@Vincent: That’s a good point. I really do want to try Linux, so I might as well go ahead and do it. One thing I thought about doing after I had written this post was just buying a new harddrive and using it solely for Linux. Then I don’t have anything to risk and I don’t have to sacrifice disk space.
Anyone who seriously considers doing sound production on Linux should first give 64studio (http://64studio.com/) a good look. A distribution designed for general users should not be considered for precision work. One thing I know is that the hard drives need special drivers to allow for minimum latency. The ones on general-use distros are compiled for maximum error correction, not speed. Ubuntu Studio may be worth a look too but I know nothing about it. 64Studio has been around for a few years at least so I would consider it a mature distribution. Before you consider any distribution you should see if your existing hardware both computer and sound is compatible. You can check you sound card here: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main
You can minimize the amount of good luck you’ll need by becoming familiar with this new environment. Studio work with Linux is not a lightweight activity. The amount of learning you’ll need to do with a studio effort in Linux is a bit more than with general use. I wish you success and please let us know how it works out.
Thank you for the suggestion! I will definitely check it out. It certainly looks promising just from the quick look I took at the website.
[…] needs and only booting up into Windows when I have to use software that won’t run on Windows (such as Reason). I’ve decided I will probably experiment with this for quite some time before I decide on […]