GNU/Linux operating systems and the Free Software Foundation

[Oren]

Mixing closed-source corporate software with commercial Linux distributions has become a fashion of late, and some developers have decided this is an issue which should not go unchallenged.
 Hence the "Free Software Foundation" -  http://www.fsf.org/
These grass-roots programmers work co-operatively to create distributions specifically "free" of closed-source software. Their concern is that each time a bit of corporate software is included in an application, for convenience or compatibility with mainstream computing, further development by independent programmers is seriously hampered.

Two distributions that look very promising for musicians:
http://dynebolic.org/
http://www.musix.org.ar/en/index.html

Dynebolic is particularly intriguing, in that it is optimized for older hardware, and can run off a CD and one USB memory stick - without affecting the host operating system or harddrive.

[Oren]

Dynebolic will run my 32 bit dual core pentium 4 machine, and all the music applications work well. Ardour, Rosegarden, Hydrogen, ZynAddSubFX, and JACK are all there. It will recognize two of the on-board soundcards, but not my M-audio Delta 66.
And all from the DVD drive. A separate storage folder, called a "nest" can be created on the hard drive or on a USB memory stick.
The primary operating system is not affected.

It will not run my 64 bit Athlon 6000 dual core computer.

If I want to run an older 32-bit computer with a regular soundcard on GNU/Linux, I think it will do a very good job.

[kara]

Good news, I was waiting for somebody to try it 

I 'think' that you should get your M-audio running by using Freebob in Jack. That's how I got mine running...

k

[Oren]

Good news, I was waiting for somebody to try it 
I 'think' that you should get your M-audio running by using Freebob in Jack. That's how I got mine running...

Freebob, eh? I'll have to try that...   Thanks.

My next move will be to try and get my Athlon64 6000 running with a DVD of "Musix GNU". Ideally, Id like to replace Ubuntu Studio with this pure GNU/Linux operating system.

[kara]

Oren, could you have a look if python is in the Dynebolic distribution ?
Easy to find, just open a command window and type python 

k

[Oren]

Oren, could you have a look if python is in the Dynebolic distribution ?
Easy to find, just open a command window and type python 

 Gladly! Except... now you'll understand how shallow my grasp of GNU/Linux really is: I don't know what a command window is, or how to open one.

Is it the same as a terminal? I don't know how to open one of those either...

Presently I'm only learning to operate the system through the available graphical user interfaces (GUI).

[kara]

Yep it's a terminal window

It should be in the menu somewhere I guess...

k

[folderol]

I try to use pure FOSS applications and drivers wherever I can. It is very rare I find I have to use propriety stuff.

[Oren]

"Musix GNU" downloaded, and the file checked out accurate with the supplied md5sum. Burned to a DVD as a disc image, it ran my 32-bit pentium dual core computer flawlessly, from the DVD drive. A beautiful operating system - very full featured - with the latest real-time kernel and all the most recent applications. And no closed-source or corporate software. This distribution originates in Argentina.

Puzzled by why it, and Dynebolic, won't run my 64 bit Athlon machine, I discovered that the problem is my Asus video card. The gentleman who designed this computer for me is an enthusiastic "gamer", and deemed this Asus video card the best available at the time. (I had asked him to build it with all the best components) It turns out Asus has not co-operated with the open-source community in designing its video card software...Linux will not run an Asus card without a lot of compatibility software. Messy.
Nvidia video cards, however, run very well on open-source software, and I'm going out Monday to buy a new Nvidia video card that works with my M2N motherboard and Athlon64 6000 processor.

So... if you want to run your computer on a GNU/Linux operating system, make certain you have an Nvidia video card.

[folderol]

I must say I'm surprised by this. Asus have an excellent reputation for motherboards, and all of these seem to have Nvidia graphics on-board chipsets. I didn't know Asus actually made graphics cards. It will be interesting to see what happens with the new generation of AMD/Ati cards. They are apparently open-sourcing just about all their drivers so we can expect some rapid developments there.

[Oren]

I must say I'm surprised by this. Asus have an excellent reputation for motherboards, and all of these seem to have Nvidia graphics on-board chipsets. I didn't know Asus actually made graphics cards. It will be interesting to see what happens with the new generation of AMD/Ati cards. They are apparently open-sourcing just about all their drivers so we can expect some rapid developments there.

Yes, the M2N motherboard from Asus is recommended GNU/Linux hardware, and mine had the Nvidia graphics right from the factory. This is the price I pay for having  a gamer "hot-rod" my computer build. Boredom, however, has not been a factor in the process  .

[Oren]

Ubuntu Studio is now working for me just as well as Windows XP was for general computer tasks and for music production. It is now my all-purpose operating system, and this leaves me able to experiment with the two GNU/Linux audio distributions, MusixGNU and Dynebolic, which I would like to use as my audio production environments - completely free of closed-source proprietary software.

(Two things I cannot do with Linux: MonkeysAudio lossless compression, and PowerTracks Pro Audio. So, I keep XP Pro on one harddrive and use it as a "host application" for these two programs.)

[kara]

(Two things I cannot do with Linux: MonkeysAudio lossless compression, and PowerTracks Pro Audio. So, I keep XP Pro on one harddrive and use it as a "host application" for these two programs.)

There seems to exist a MonkeysAudio codecs for Linux, I've found this old reference : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t21860.html
but there is propably a newer version somewhere.

And who needs Powertracks when you have Ardour

k

[Oren]

There seems to exist a MonkeysAudio codecs for Linux
And who needs Powertracks when you have Ardour

The creator of MonkeysAudio has made his code open-source, but licensed it in such a way that it cannot be included in GNU/Linux. Repeated requests from the Linux community for permission to work with MonkeysAudio code have been ignored.

I keep XP Pro, Monkeys Audio, and PowerTracks as a courtesy to those who use them and would like to collaborate more easily.

[bvdp]

You guys do know that for those "must have XP/Vista applications" it's very easy to install VirtualBox under Linux, install XP into it, have a shared folder, and use the programs without resorting to reboots or different machines. I don't use VirtualBox very often, but it appears to run as fast (or nearly so) as native XP.