I'm thinking of having my machine dual boot with OS X/Linux. I'm basically interesting in trying out audio/recording software (i.e. Ardour) -- I'm fed up with Bias/Waves/BBESound. I'd appreciate any experienced thoughts about this topic...like, is it worth having a Linux partition when Unix already exists?
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To Linux or not to Linux?
- Thread starter crazytom
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I'll be trying out Debian on the Powermac I recently bought.
As soon as it ships and I get the ISO downloaded I'll let you know.
As soon as it ships and I get the ISO downloaded I'll let you know.
Debian PPC?Originally posted by vniow
I'll be trying out Debian on the Powermac I recently bought.
As soon as it ships and I get the ISO downloaded I'll let you know.
Not for the newbie, IMO.Even though it will take a while to complile everything, I suggest you try Gentoo Linux 1.4 PowerPC. It's a lot easier following their steps than being dwarfed by all the choices during install. Just IMO.
Perhaps you should try Mandrake PowerPC. I've heard it works great. Or perhaps LinuxPPC. Ahh, too many Linuxes to choose from.
Using Linux for audio recording software is like using sandpaper to wipe your arse. You can get very basic editing things done with it, but it will never hold a candle to Cubase or Digital Performer or Logic or anything like that. It's great that it's free, but you do get what you pay for, and it may not even be necessary to keep a Linux partition for this since I'm guessing a lot of Linux audio software can run under X11 on Darwin.
More on my purpose/experience
I thank you all for your replies and I wanted to keep this going.
I wouldn't consider myself a newbie, I used to write code and knew my way around a Unix machine fairly well....I guess 'forgetful' or 'disinterested' would be more the correct term for what I've done with Unix over the last 12 years....I've just recently installed X11 and other stuff on my machine, so I'm slowly getting back into it.
I find that I don't necessarily need the power of Cubase or Logic....I haven't had the need for Midi. I basically do your 'old school' standard rock bands (drums, bass, 2 guitars, and vocals). So far, Ardour seems to have most of the features that I need and I guess that I just need to play with it to figure out if it's worth it. It's just that my head spins with all the different Linux's out there...though if it will work inside X11, that would certainly be the easy way. I just wish I lots of time to research everything!!!
I thank you all for your replies and I wanted to keep this going.
I wouldn't consider myself a newbie, I used to write code and knew my way around a Unix machine fairly well....I guess 'forgetful' or 'disinterested' would be more the correct term for what I've done with Unix over the last 12 years....I've just recently installed X11 and other stuff on my machine, so I'm slowly getting back into it.
I find that I don't necessarily need the power of Cubase or Logic....I haven't had the need for Midi. I basically do your 'old school' standard rock bands (drums, bass, 2 guitars, and vocals). So far, Ardour seems to have most of the features that I need and I guess that I just need to play with it to figure out if it's worth it. It's just that my head spins with all the different Linux's out there...though if it will work inside X11, that would certainly be the easy way. I just wish I lots of time to research everything!!!
go for it...
funny timing.. i'm actually in the middle of setting up debian on a powerbook g3 (lombard 400mhz). so far it's looking good - x is up and running, modem is all set up, actually it was a really pleasant installation experience, especially considering this machine died a slow death running os X! even with the standard non-configured kernel i've put in so far it's really speedy - blows OS X out of the water of course, but then everyone knows OS X is meant for power, not for a lightweight operating system. anyhow, here's some pros and cons of linux on macs IMHO:
pros:
1) apple hardware is nice... once it's up and running it's an undeniably sweet little system, especially on apple laptops...
2) linux takes advantage of the niceties of apple hardware better than apple's own operating systems, or at least, it's light enough that you realize just how fast your processor is - you'll quickly see just how fast the G3 is once you switch to linux from OS 9..
cons:
1) linux is not as well established on macs as it is on x86, meaning info and support are harder to find. i set up linux on a toshiba tecra and there's probably 15 sites out there with good info on how to do it. for my pb g3 i've found about 3 sites, nowhere near as much information.
2) the one-button-mouse thing is kind of a pain in linux, which is pretty much built for two/three-button mice. you can emulate it on linux, sure, but it's not a pretty sight.
3) cost - you can run linux on comparable x86 hardware for about half the price, and linux really isn't picky about what you're running it on. (of course, you're also looking to run OS X, so obviously this won't make a difference to you).
hope this helps! feel free to e-mail me if i can be of further assistance. some cool linux apps to check out: pd (synthesis/sound-mangling software, basically a free version of max/msp!), gem (video extensions to pd).. and lots more!!!
best,
nick
funny timing.. i'm actually in the middle of setting up debian on a powerbook g3 (lombard 400mhz). so far it's looking good - x is up and running, modem is all set up, actually it was a really pleasant installation experience, especially considering this machine died a slow death running os X! even with the standard non-configured kernel i've put in so far it's really speedy - blows OS X out of the water of course, but then everyone knows OS X is meant for power, not for a lightweight operating system. anyhow, here's some pros and cons of linux on macs IMHO:
pros:
1) apple hardware is nice... once it's up and running it's an undeniably sweet little system, especially on apple laptops...
2) linux takes advantage of the niceties of apple hardware better than apple's own operating systems, or at least, it's light enough that you realize just how fast your processor is - you'll quickly see just how fast the G3 is once you switch to linux from OS 9..
cons:
1) linux is not as well established on macs as it is on x86, meaning info and support are harder to find. i set up linux on a toshiba tecra and there's probably 15 sites out there with good info on how to do it. for my pb g3 i've found about 3 sites, nowhere near as much information.
2) the one-button-mouse thing is kind of a pain in linux, which is pretty much built for two/three-button mice. you can emulate it on linux, sure, but it's not a pretty sight.
3) cost - you can run linux on comparable x86 hardware for about half the price, and linux really isn't picky about what you're running it on. (of course, you're also looking to run OS X, so obviously this won't make a difference to you).
hope this helps! feel free to e-mail me if i can be of further assistance. some cool linux apps to check out: pd (synthesis/sound-mangling software, basically a free version of max/msp!), gem (video extensions to pd).. and lots more!!!
best,
nick
I've really been thinking about running Linux on my PowerCenter with a 225 MHz PPC 604e. I found it very fast with BeOS and would expect as much with the various Linux distros.
I particularly like SuSE as it's IBM's choice for their own machines. That says industrial strength to me. I wish that SuSE would update the PPC version from 7.3 to 8.1 though. Debian is great if you know your way around Linux, though. Seeing that it's the basis for Lindows, you have to wonder if we'll see such a user-friendly interface on Debian for PPC hardware.
I particularly like SuSE as it's IBM's choice for their own machines. That says industrial strength to me. I wish that SuSE would update the PPC version from 7.3 to 8.1 though. Debian is great if you know your way around Linux, though. Seeing that it's the basis for Lindows, you have to wonder if we'll see such a user-friendly interface on Debian for PPC hardware.